Cameroon first African nation to defeat Brazil after Aboubakar header, but eliminated from knockout stage: World Cup 2022 result

Neymar might be out but Casemiro was the surprise star last time out.

Manchester United's new star scored a screamer to break the deadlock against Switzerland, and ran the game from the base of midfield.

Laid up in his hotel room, Neymar put the game against Switzerland on the big screen and couldn’t resist tweeting after Brazil secured qualification for the knockout stages with a game to spare.

“Casemiro has been the best midfielder in the world for a long time,” he posted.

Read more on how and why he's thriving below.

Brazil have said they will make a decision on Neymar’s further involvement in the World Cup after this final group match.

The PSG forward picked up an injury in Brazil’s first match of the tournament — a 2-0 victory against Serbia last Thursday.

Neymar has been doing physiotherapy in a pool at the team's hotel along with left-back Alex Sandro, who has an injured hip, but Brazil doctors have not given a timetable on Neymar's recovery.

Speaking ahead of Friday’s match, Brazil assistant coach Cleber Xavier said of injured players Neymar, Danilo and Alex Sandro: "They are progressing.

"We are focused on the game against Cameroon, and then we will start the decision-making process about these players. We already have a plan prepared for their return."

Neymar injured his back in the quarter-final against Colombia during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and missed the rest of the tournament. He also missed the 2019 Copa America because of another right ankle injury.

A nation continues to wait anxiously...

Here's what you need to know about this one:

The match will be played at Lusail Stadium in Al-Daayen.

Ismail Elfath has been confirmed as the game’s referee. His first game at this year’s tournament was Portugal’s thoroughly entertaining 3-2 win against Ghana.

The match kicks off at 10pm local time, which means it will start at 7pm in the UK and the coverage will be shown on ITV.

In the US, FOX and Telemundo will be showing the match and kick off is at 2pm EST and 11am PT.

Brazil are already through but will they seal top spot?

In doing so, they'd avoid Portugal — who top Group H as it stands — but could face Uruguay in the last 16.

Here's how the schedule is shaping up:

Monday, December 5

Group G winners vs Group H runners-up – 7pm GMT (2pm ET, 11am PT) at Stadium 974, Doha

Tuesday, December 6

Group H winners vs Group G runners-up (Predicted: Portugal vs Switzerland) – 7pm (2pm ET, 11am PT) at Lusail Stadium, Lusail

Yes, but it would require quite the turnaround.

They need to hope that Switzerland don't beat Serbia, beat Brazil (no small task), and then ensure that their goal difference is better than either Switzerland or Serbia.

Currently, it's -1, one goal worse off than Switzerland, and one better than Serbia. If they win and Switzerland fail to win, however, and they'll go level with the Swiss, having scored more goals...

Before the Cameroon squad’s training session at the Al Sailiya SC Stadium in Qatar last Saturday, national coach Rigobert Song had a tactical issue he wanted to discuss with Andre Onana, his first-choice goalkeeper.

The team had lost their opening game 1-0 to Switzerland on November 24 but still had a decent chance of progressing to the knockout stage of the tournament if they could win their second match against Serbia on Monday.

Song wanted to ask Onana to be more conservative when in possession of the ball. Onana, however, felt he was more than capable of doing just this.

It kicked off a battle...

It overwhelmingly favours Brazil.

Cameroon to win: 6%. Brazil to win: 82%. Draw: 11%.

All of our predictions for the 2022 World Cup are powered by Nielsen’s Gracenote, who have used a proprietary football ranking system to estimate the chances of different results for every possible match through extensive simulations, to assess the chances for each team to reach different stages of the tournament.

As Brazil are already through to the knockouts, Tite is likely to take the opportunity to make wholesale changes to his starting XI for this final group game.

In terms of injuries, he will still be without Neymar and Danilo, who missed the Switzerland win with ankle injuries. The medical team are doing everything to ensure that the pair — Neymar in particular — are available later in the tournament.

(Photo: Getty Images)