Some contests are destined to be fiery, and emotions stirred by Chile's arrival in the World Cup knock-out mix for the first time since 1962 could not disguise the loud rumblings inside the Cameroon dressing-room after this rollicking game of missed chances and multi-coloured cards.
Stopping just short of accusing the game's rulers of legalised daylight robbery, the coach of the Indomitable Lions, Claude Le Roy, launched a scatter-gun attack on new FIFA president Sepp Blatter after watching his side suffer two disallowed `goals' and finish with only nine men.
Particularly bitter at the decision to rule out what appeared to be a perfectly good second-half effort by his captain Francois Omam-Biyik for a barely discernible push by Patrick Mboma in the build-up, Le Roy was not in any hurry to congratulate the Chileans on reaching the second round.
"I'm very sorry we have been eliminated on the basis of an incompetent decision," he rasped. "I don't want to say anything about the red cards, but if Mr Blatter is watching he should know we can't understand why our second `goal' was ruled out. Blatter should listen more to Michel Platini, who knows more about football, and stick to administration. Our players cannot understand it. I hope FIFA will draw a lesson from it."
The Hungarian referee had already dismissed the extrovert defender Rigobert Song for his second bookable offence, an elbow in the face of Marcelo Salas, and dismissed the substitute Lavriano Etame in the 89th minute when Salas was scythed down again.
The sendings-off provoked riots in the Cameroon capital Yaounde as black fans vented their anger on whites. Police used water cannon to disperse an angry crowd outside a supermarket who were chanting "Whites don't like us," in protest at the white referee's handling of the game.
With four Chileans booked, three of whom will miss Saturday's encounter with Brazil in Paris, the 21st-minute free-kick curled into the top corner from 25 yards by Jose Luis Sierra's left foot did not receive the post-match acclaim it deserved.
One can only hazard what Cameroon might have accomplished with a little more discipline. As against Italy, they paid a heavy price for diving in where seasoned professionals dip their toes, and Song's name was in the book as early as the eighth minute.
Song's decision to wear one red and one yellow boot was surely tempting fate, and he could have walked for the two-footed lunge on Ivan Zamarano which yielded Sierra's bending free-kick. Omam-Biyik had a potential equaliser ruled out for offside and although Salas had a shot kicked off the line by Joseph Ndo, it was Cameroon who produced the better chances.
Mboma went close on three occasions before his powerful header in the 56th minute, shortly after Song's departure, gave 10-man Cameroon a genuine sniff. In addition to his second disallowed effort, which he branded later as "unjust", Omam-Biyik hit the side-netting in the 74th minute and it was Chile who were hanging on by the end.
The most bizarre threat to the South Americans yesterday came from two right-wing German extremists arrested at the stadium gates carrying baseball bats, an apparent result of messages on the Internet for like-minded lunatics to spill a few pints of Chilean red.
