Cameroon kept their chances of reaching the Round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup alive, rallying from two goals down to earn a 3-3 draw with Serbia in Group G action.
The Indomitable Lions went in front through Jean-Charles Castelletto, but Strahinja Pavlovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored in first-half stoppage time to give the Eagles a halftime lead.
Aleskandar Mitrovic made it 3-1 to put Serbia in a seemingly strong position to advance out of the group.
Cameroon fought back, a sumptuous lob by Vincent Aboubakar brought the African side to within a goal and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting leveled three minutes later.
Mitrovic had a chance to win it, his curling effort going just wide after being set up by captain Dusan Tadic.
Both sides are on a single point after dropping their opening matches with Brazil facing Switzerland in the other Group G match later in the day.
Cameroon face Brazil while Serbia take on Switzerland in the final round of group-stage fixtures with both the Indomitable Lions and Eagles requiring victories to give them any chance of advancing.
Story of the match
Serbia manager Dragan Stojkovic named Dusan Vlahovic to the bench for the second straight match as the striker continues to battle a groin problem. Wing-back Filip Kostic was back in the starting lineup after missing out again Brazil through a muscle problem.
Rigobert Song elected to make two changes to his side following their defeat to Switzerland. In a shock move, goalkeeper Andre Onana was dropped for Davis Epassy while Pierre Kunde came into the midfield for Samuel Gouet.
Mitrovic could have opened the scoring on 11 minutes after cutting inside Nicolas N'Koulou, but he curled his effort against the post.
Five minutes later, the Fulham striker was presented with an even better opportunity as a poor clearance from N'Koulou rebounded back to him, but Mitrovic was off-target with his shot.
Kunde would test goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, forcing the Eagles shot-stopper to palm away his effort.
Just short of the half-hour mark, the Indomitable Lions midfielder swung in a ball from the left that N'Koulou flicked on with Castelletto having the simplest of tap-ins.
Dreadful defending cost the Africans as Pavlovic met Tadic's set-piece to head into the bottom corner and two minutes later, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic collected Zivkovic's pass and struck with his left foot to bury past Epassy.
Mitrovic started and finished the move for Serbia's third, driving towards the Cameroon box and following a series of passes, Zivkovic squared for the Eagles talisman to tap in.
The goal was his seventh in his last six games for Serbia in all competitions, becoming the first player to score more than once at the World Cup for his country.
Cameroon were averaging a paltry 0.8 goals per game at the World Cup - the lowest goals per game ratio of any nation to play at least 20 games in the competition, but Aboubakar's introduction changed everything.
After being left on the bench against Switzerland, Song again named the Al-Nassr striker amongst the substitutes, but he responded with a sumptuous scooped finish took Vanja Milinkovic-Savic by surprise and bounced onto the roof of the net.
Less than three minutes later, the Indomitable Lions were on level terms, Choupo-Moting holding his run to sweep in Aboubakar's cross at the far post to breach the Serbia defense for the second time in 148 seconds.
Having avoided a ninth successive group-stage defeat, Cameroon were still in with a shout of making it to the final 16 while the Eagles will be left to wonder how they let victory slip from their grasp after being in such a commanding position.
Player of the match: Andrija Zivkovic
Excellent in possession of the ball and his distribution was top class. Caused constant problems down the right and he was terrific in link-up play with his teammates as evidenced by his two assists.