Both of these teams were still looking for their first points of the tournament, while Holland would qualify, unless Cameroon won; or if Denmark won, Cameroon would be out.

Cameroon came out of the blocks with a spring in their step; as Morten Olsen - the Denmark manager - started taking notes.

When Dennis Rommedahl skied Jabulani in the seventh minute, Olsen scribbled some more.

Then a lazy pass by Christian Poulsen was cut out by Achille Emana who found Samuel Eto'o in his more favoured central position; no chance for Thomas Sorensen.

A few minutes later and Cameroon were pushing forward again, trying to extend their lead and keep this group wide open.

With just over half an hour gone, a long ball over the Cameroon left-back found Dennis Rommedahl sprinting down the right. The Ajax midfielder whipped a cross into the middle, for Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner to slide home.

Denmark will wonder how they missed the chance to go ahead, five minutes before half-time. Then Cameroon broke forward, mistakes being made everywhere, and Eto'o cannoned a shot off the post; when Emana should have probably taken it on his own.

Half-time: 1:1

Another comedy of errors in the Denmark penalty area, at the start of the second-half, but Cameroon were unable to make anything of it.

Then around the hour mark, Assou-Ekotto was caught out of position - having just fed the ball to Pierre Webo around the Danish penalty area - thus making life easy for Dennis Rommedahl on the right; who cut inside and steered the ball past Souleymanou Hamidou.

With twelve minutes left to play, Thomas Sorensen denied Achille Emana the chance to fire Cameroon back into the World Cup Finals; diving down to his right to make a terrific, one-handed stop.

Cameroon substitute, Mohamadou Idrissou, then headed over the Denmark bar with five minutes still to play.

With the final whistle, Cameroon became the first team to be dumped out of the 2010 World Cup Finals; an African team out of the African World Cup.

Cameroon 1 Denmark 2