Confederations Cup - Brazil 2 Cameroon 0

Brazil overcame a slow start to their Confederations Cup campaign to beat African champions Cameroon 2-0.

The Brazilians improved from a dire first half showing in which they could barely put four passes together to hit two quick goals at the start of the second session and make Cameroon pay for over-elaborate attempts to try and score in the first half when the African team were in charge of the match and Brazil looked like strangers to each other.

Washington turned and controlled a long punt upfield in the 51st minute to hit a low cross shot beyond the dive of Cameroon goalkeeper Alioume and the goalkeeper was to blame four minutes later when he failed to hold a cross from the right by Sonny Anderson.

He came out of goal but spilled the ball allowing it to be hooked back into the penalty area for substitute Carlos Miguel to hit a sharp volley with his back to goal over his shoulder and into the empty net.

Cameroon were comfortable in the first half and, apart from a wild slashing volley in the 3rd minute which Wagner Lopes hit over the cross bar in the first half, Emerson Leao's team showed very little in attack.

This allowed the African champions to realise quickly that this patchwork Brazil side would take much longer to settle than themselves so they set about taking command of the game.

Misplaced passing in the attack cost the Africans at least three good openings as they failed to find an overlapping runner on the left wing of a poorly placed Brazilian defence and they were unlucky when Patrick Mboma shaped to shoot in the 13th minute when clean through after a well-timed run but he was tackled with the ball on the toe of his boot.

Mboma's movement pulled the makeshift Brazilian backline out of position and allowed runners to come from midfield but the final pass was lacking.

Solomon Olmebe hit along range drive just inches over the cross bar in the 20th minute and Mboma had a shot blocked by Leomar in front of goal when he tried for a side-foot finish in the 38th minute but Brazil made changes at half tme and Fabio Rochembach's hard running replaced Marcio Vampeta's lack of interest in the game and Leao's team took the lead.

Cameroon defender Pierre Njanka was lucky to escape a red card for a two-footed lunge on Lopez which led to the striker being substituted at half time.

The African side produced more heavy tackles when they could see no way back into the game and substitute Joseph Desire Job had their best effort of the second half in the 89th minute when he was running in on goal but Brazilian goalkeepr Dida saved at his feet.