The Swiss and the Cameroon have one huge obstacle in their path to glory – and the name of that trouble is Brazil. They are pitted in the same group with first-ranked team in the world, and the two teams have no choice but to gun for a huge win in this first game itself.
The Swiss are obviously in high spirits, considering the manner in which they made it to the grandest stage of the game. They remained unbeaten throughout their qualification campaign in the UEFA region – and that too after they were included in the same group as that of reigning Euro champions Italy.
Not only did they score the most number of goals in the group, but they let in the least too – just two goals through the entire duration of the competition.
Their realistic target would be to finish second in the group below Brazil, and for that a win this Thursday is almost a necessity.
They of course have the confidence of having come from the UEFA region – note that the last four World Cups were lifted by European teams.
Cameroon are not here to just participate though. They too moved heaven and earth to make it here. And note that they had to go through the challenging and almost unfair African Qualifiers, where group winners were pitted against each other in playoff games, for tickets to Qatar.



译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

瑞士人和喀麦隆在通往荣耀的道路上都有一个巨大的障碍——这个障碍的名字就是巴西。他们和世界排名第一的球队分在同一个小组，两支球队别无选择，只能在第一场比赛中取得巨大的胜利。
瑞士队显然情绪高涨，他们以这样的方式进入了这项赛事最盛大的阶段。他们在欧足联地区的预选赛中保持不败，这也是在他们与欧洲杯卫冕冠军意大利同组之后。
他们不仅在小组中进球数最多，而且失球也最少——整个比赛期间只进了两个球。
他们的现实目标是小组第二，排在巴西之后，为此，周四的一场胜利几乎是必不可少的。
他们当然有来自欧足联地区的信心——注意，过去四届世界杯都是由欧洲球队举起的。
不过，喀麦隆并不只是来参加比赛的。他们也费尽千辛万苦才来到这里。还要注意的是，他们必须通过富有挑战性且几乎不公平的非洲预选赛(African Qualifiers)，小组第一将在季后赛中相互竞争，才能拿到前往卡塔尔的门票。