Saudis are dumped out

Mick McCarthy left Saitama Stadium with his World Cup needs firmly in focus after a Samuel Eto'o goal was all Cameroon could muster against Saudi Arabia.

The Ireland manager, whose team were all on a trip to Japan's Disneyland, was on a spying mission. He now knows that anything more than a one-goal victory against Saudi in Yokohama next Tuesday will see the Irish through to the second phase.

This scoreline also means both Cameroon and Germany must go for broke in Shizuoka, avoiding the carve up that McCarthy had feared in the event of a goal glut from the Africans today.

A German victory on Tuesday will knock Cameroon out if Ireland beat Saudi. A Cameroon win against Germany will knock Rudi Voller's side out if the Irish keep their side of the bargain.

The Republic could even top the group if the Germany-Cameroon result goes in their favour.

McCarthy said: "I said all along that we have to beat the Saudis and that is still the case. Everyone expected that Germany's eight goals against Saudi would be repeated today and I did fear Cameroon would run up a big scoreline. But Saudi were dogged and I believe we will find them just as tough to break down on Tuesday.

"The difference is that we know exactly what we need to do now. We have to go for the win and hope that is enough. It should be."

The Saudis, who became the first team to be eliminated from the World Cup, restored some pride with this performance, none more so than that o f goalke e per and captain Mohammed Al Deayea. He was beaten eight times by the rampant Germans last Saturday but this time there was no repeat against the African champions, who were wildly erratic in front of goal.