Football | African Nations | News | Eto’o laments …

Samuel Eto'o admits he is disappointed with Cameroon's exit in the African Cup of Nations. Cameroon crashed out of the competition at the quarter-final stage having lost in extra-time to defending champions Egypt on Monday. The Egyptians are now favourites to retain their crown, although Eto'o believes undeservedly so. The Inter Milan striker says the result was an unfair reflection on the performance from both sides, saying the defending champions had a lot of decisions go their way.

Disappointed

"We played well," said Eto'o. "We had a great start. "However, the referee helped Egypt, they did not deserve to win the game." Eto'o said that, although he feels South African referee Jerome Damon had a large part to play in Cameroon's exit, the squad must now concentrate on the 2010 World Cup. He added: "I will leave the referee alone, it isAfrica, there are some improvements to be made. "I think on any other day we would have won this game, we tried but Egypt won the match so let's forget about it and prepare for the World Cup and go there to make our country proud like the team in 1990."

Warning

Cameroon coach Paul Le Guen has issued a stern warning to his players ahead of this summer's tournament - improve or risk being dropped. The French coach said he felt the majority of his young players under-performed in the tournament. "It is important for me to be sure I can rely on young players for the World Cup," said the Frenchman. "This would have been a good experience if we had won but there were a lot of players under-achieving. "I will (now) go to watch a maximum number of games to try to be in a situation where I can select the best players. I will also watch games in Cameroon but the best Cameroonian players are competing in Europe." Of the quarter-final defeat to Egypt, he said: "We were beaten by a good opponent who were really strong but it is hard to say we were beaten by the future champions."