Coach Rigobert Song said Wednesday that rankings mean nothing as he backed his unfancied Cameroon side to become the latest team to pull off a World Cup shock.

Cameroon are embarking on their eighth World Cup but the 1990 quarter-finalists are not the force they were -- they are ranked a lowly 43rd and only narrowly qualified for Qatar.

Their previous World Cup win came back in 2002 and they will be heavy underdogs in a Group G which also contains the higher-ranked trio of Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland.

But Saudi Arabia stunned Lionel Messi's Argentina 2-1 on Tuesday and a day later Japan similarly came from behind to beat Germany by the same scoreline.

Former international defender and skipper Song said that was proof Cameroon could pull off a surprise themselves, starting against the Swiss on Thursday.

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