AFCON
Cameroon wary of giant killing Gambia and another Cup of Nations shock
Hosts Cameroon will go into the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals wary of an ignominious exit as they take on giant killers Gambia in the first of the weekend’s matches.
Cameroon have been far from convincing as they have advanced through the group stages and one round of knockout matches while lowly ranked Gambia have thrilled with their attacking approach and improbable run to the last eight of the tournament.
Burkina Faso and Tunisia meet in Garoua in Saturday’s second quarter-final clash while Egypt play Morocco and Senegal take on another upstart in Equatorial Guinea in Sunday’s two quarter-finals in Yaounde.
Gambia are making their Nations Cup debut and are ranked 150 in world football – the lowest of all 24 teams at the Cup of Nations finals – but have yet proven able to win two out of three group matches, and then upset Guinea in the last-16, conceding only one goal, which was from the penalty spot, in four matches in Cameroon.
Cameroon, in contrast, have turned in largely mediocre performances and, although they had all the odds heavily staked in their favour in their last game against the other tournament debutants, Comoros Islands, they laboured through to the quarter-finals in a controversial 2-1 victory.
“We have seen teams ranked as underdogs stand up to high calibre countries and my players have been warned,” said Cameroon coach Toni Conceiçao.
Elimination of the hosts at this stage would come as a blow to tournament already hard hit by the death of eight spectators in a stampede ahead of Cameroon’s last game on Monday.
As a result, Yaounde’s Olembe Stadium, where the final is scheduled to be played on Feb. 6, is not being used this weekend.
Cameroon take on Gambia in Douala where the condition of the pitch at the Japoma Stadium been declared poor and where there will be no further games, the Confederation of African Football decided this week.
On Sunday, both matches are being played at Yaounde’s older Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium.
Egypt’s clash with Morocco will be keenly anticipated and could reveal the identity of the eventual winner although Senegal remain strong favourites, even if they, too, have not delivered any strong evidence of their potential.
Senegal have scored only three goals in four outings at the tournament but have not conceded a goal and will be heavily fancied to end the run of Equatorial Guinea, although Sadio Mane’s participation is unsure after he suffered concussion in their last game on Tuesday.
The quarter-final winners advance to the semi-finals, both to be played in Yaounde, on Wednesday and Thursday.
-Reuters
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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