Defiant Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer has pledged that the Indomitable Lions will bounce back from their shock 2-1 defeat to Nigeria in the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup.
The result put Nigeria into a semi-final clash on Wednesday against Tunisia in Tunis while defending champions Cameroon, who were bidding for a third successive title and record fifth in all, were dumped out and left to rebuild in time for their 2006 World Cup qualifiers against Benin, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan and Egypt which begin in June.
"Despite this defeat, Cameroon are still a great team with huge potential at the highest level," said Schafer who said he has no intention of stepping down from the job he has held for the last two years.
"Why? Why should I leave?," he asked.
"The players will recover from this. Nigeria were better in the second half and we couldn't play our usual game."
Cameroon had taken the lead with Samuel Eto'o scoring his first goal of the tournament in the 42nd minute but a sweetly-struck free-kick at the end of the first half from skipper Jay Jay Okocha pulled Nigeria level.
It was left to John Utaka to bury the winner in the 73rd minute as Cameroon's defence, which had conceded three goals in a group game to minnows Zimbabwe, once again fell apart.
"We have conceded goals in this tournament which we are just not used to doing," admitted Cameroon defender Bill Tchato.
"There are questions to be asked but at the same time we must consider the future. Nigeria deserved to win and I hope they go a long way in this tournament."