AFCON
Burkina Faso and Cameroon battle for place on the podium
As it was in the begining, so shall it be today as Cameroon and Burkina Faso have an encore tonight.
Both contested the opening match in which two penalty kick goals enabled Cameroon to come back from behind to a 2-1 winning start.
The penalty goals also aided Cameroon’s skipper, Vincent Aboubakar who looked set to be named the tournament’s highest scorer.
The rematch is however not what any of the two teams would have wished for.
They are contesting in the losers’ final match for the third place rather than for the ultimate trophy.
For Burkina Faso, a third-place finish will be a good outing as they merely rank among the middle level powers in African football. A podium finish is a good outing only that it is a step below their best achievement of runnersup to Nigeria in 2013.
Above all, Burkina Faso will seek revenge against the Indomitable Lions, who won the tournament’s opener 2-1 last month during the group stage.
The coach, Kamou Malo summed it up: “It is true that we are disappointed following our elimination in the semifinals, but we have to prepare ourselves properly to play this match for third place in the best conditions. We have to remobilize now. We are physically and mentally ready for play our game.”
The captain, Bertand Traoure added: “we are obviously down after our elimination, but we have to remobilize to get the bronze medal. At this level of the competition, we feel tired but we will do everything to have a good match and end the tournament on a good note.”
As for the hosts, the match is not what they had bargained for. They had revelled in beating lower-level teams like Ethiopia, Comoros among others before facing an ultimate and deadly challenge by Africa Cup of Nations record-winners, Egypt.
The title aspirations of the hosts just dissolved in smokes. Now decimated after their elimination on their own land, Cameroon seem that they still can’t get out of this defeat.
The disappointment is better gleaned from the comments of their Portuguese coach, Antonio Conceiçao: “The sadness is great especially when we do not achieve our objectives. The players have worked well, and I am proud of them. It is up to us to learn now and move forward. I give the best of myself to have the best results with this team. We wanted to write history, but it didn’t work out”.
Barely 48 hours after penalties’ heartbreak, the Indomitable Lions will have to regroup and try to give their faithful supporters something to cheer at.
“It’s difficult to live in such a situation but that’s football,” said Indomitable Lions goalkeeper André Onana. “We ask our supporters and all Cameroonians to stay around our young team. We have to go after our goals,” he added.
“It’s true that disappointment is great, but that’s life. We have to regroup to win this third place this Saturday against Burkina Faso.
“We have to try to forget elimination in the semifinals and think about the future, especially this classification match and the World Cup qualifiers. We have confidence in ourselves, and we must recover quickly”, said the goalkeeper.
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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