Champions, Lions of Cameroon Struggle to Hold 10 Men Sylli Nationals of Guinea with 1-1 in AFCON Duel.
Former African Champions, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on Monday at the Boigny Stadium in Yamoussoukro struggled hard to force a draw with ten men Sylli National of Guinea in a second match in Group C at the ongoing African Nations Cup in Ivory Coast.
Guinea came for business though on paper they are minnows to Cameroon but Guinea struck in the 10th minute of play when France born 26 year old Le Houpe FC of France player, Mohammed Bayo neatly beat the Cameroonian keeper for the first goal of the night. Onan who should have been in goal for Cameroon stayed back for Manchester United of Britain and the Cameroonian defence failed to clear their lines properly for Guinea to score.
Cover photo is the Guinea goal.
Tragedy struck for Guinea when their Captain Francois Kamano was yellow carded in 45+2 minutes for a deliberate back stud on his opponent but a VAR review of the incident turned Yellow to Red Card. Kamano became the second BAD BOY of AFCON 24 as earlier, Captain of the Scorpions of Gambia, Ebou Adams of Cardiff FC in UK was red carded in 45+8 minute in the 0-3 loss to defending Champions, Senegal.
Cameroon fought like the proverbial wounded Lions and rampaging N’koudu found France born and Toulouse of France player, Frank Magri who is on Yellow card to provide the much needed equalizer in the 51st minute.
According to the Stats table of the match, Cameroon should have won easily with 14-6 shots at goal; 70-30% ball possession meaning the Lions were in full control of the game; Cameroon stringed 447 passes with 81% accuracy to 204 of Guinea with 60% accuracy meaning they could have taken advantage of their opponents with better planning; there were equal foul records of 14 -14 meaning both teams adopted the famous NO GREE FOR YOUR OPPONENT AT AFCON and Cameroon got 5-0 corner kicks meaning they were hopeless planners and finishers, so wasteful.
With the stats, the second round group matches look like a no hope situation when the two Lions meet, Senegal versus Cameroon on Friday 19th January at 6pm when Guinea will meet Gambia at 9pm same day.
Senegal leads group C with 3 goals and 3 points; Cameroon is second with a goal and a point; Guinea is 3rd with a goal and a point while Gambia is at the bottom with no goal and no point.
Six times Cameroon and Guinea met and it was two wins each and two draws. On 16th August 2006 Cameroon played 1-1 in a friendly at Yaoundé; on 23rd July 2007 Cameroon beat Guinea by a lone goal in another friendly at Yaoundé; 12th February 2009 Cameroon won a friendly 3-1; both teams played 1-1 at an AFCON match on 25th January 2009; Guinea won 2-1 in a friendly on 29th March 2017 at Yaoundé and on 7th February 2021 Guinea won 2-0 at Nations Championship.
The Sylli National or Elephants ranked 80 in the world is making her 14th appearance at the AFCON but has only one podium finish in Ethiopia 76 when she played 1-1 draw with Morocco and the Gold was awarded the North Africans.
Guinea last five matches are as following; beat Guinea Bissau 1-0 in a friendly on 14th October 2023; played 1-1 with Gabon in another friendly on 18th October 2023; Guinea beat Uganda 2-1 in a world cup duel on 17th November 2023; on 21st November 2023 Botswana beat Guinea 1-0 in a world cup tie and on 8th January 2024 Guinea shocked the Super Eagles 2-0 in a friendly.
Cameroon lost to Russia 0-1 in a friendly on 14th October 2023; lost to Senegal 0-1 in a friendly on 17th October 2023; slammed Mauritius 3-0 in a world cup encounter on 18th November 2023; played 1-1 with Liberia in a world cup match on 22nd November 2023 and on 9th January 2024 settled for 1-1 draw with Zimbabwe in a friendly.
Cameroon is four times AFCON champions. The podium finish of Cameroon is impressive. In 1972 they hosted and won Bronze defeating Zaire 5-2; The Lions first won the trophy in Ivory Coast in 1984 caging the Super Eagles of Nigeria 3-1; in 1986 she lost the trophy in a penalty shootout 5-4 after a goalless match to hosts Egypt; in 1988 they took the trophy again beating Nigeria 1-0 in Morocco; but in 1992 at Senegal the team ended 4th losing the Bronze to Nigeria 1-2.
When Nigeria and Ghana co-hosted in 2000 Cameroon again defeated their foes Nigeria 4-3 on penalty after 2-2 draw; it was back to back win for Cameroon in 2002 in Mali beating Senegal on penalty 3-2 after a goalless full time; at Ghana 2008, Cameroon bagged the Silver losing to Egypt by a lone goal; Cameroon last won the trophy at Gabon in 2017 beating Egypt 2-1 but hosting the last edition, Cameroon won Bronze beating Burkina Faso via penalty 5-3 after the grueling match ended 3-3.
We are still expecting a group D match between Algeria and Angola is at 9pm at the Stade de la Paix Bouake.
On Tuesday 16th January a group D match between Burkina Faso and Mauritania will take place at Stade Bouake at 3pm; Tunisia will slug it out with Namibia at 6pm at Ahmoudu Coulibaly Stadium in group E and another Group E match between Mali and South Africa is at 9pm.
#CAF #IvoryCoast2024 #NFF.
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