The Stallions of Burkina Faso on Saturday blew a 3-goal lead to hand the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) third place title.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the 2021 AFCON third place tie between Burkina Faso and Cameroon ended 3:3 at normal time after a poor display from the Stallions.
From 3 nil down, Cameroon levelled up by 90th minute and ended up winning the third place tie by 5-3 on penalties.
TNG reports Burkina Faso opened the scoreline with a goal from Steeve Yago at the 24th minute of the encounter.
Yago, Assisted by Issa Kaboré with a cross, pulled a left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the high centre of the goal.
At the 43rd minute, Cameroonian goalie, André Onana committed a blunder to hand Burkina Faso 2 goals lead before Burkina Faso added another in the 49th minute from Djibril Ouattara’s header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner.
TNG reports Ouattara’s goal was assisted by Bertrand Traoré with a cross.
However, with the game on its head, on the 45th minute, Cameroon’s coach, António Oliveira introduced tournament highest goal scorer, Vincent Aboubakar for Samuel Oum Gouet.
Meanwhile, it was Stéphane Bahoken of Cameroon who pulled one back with a right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal following a corner at 71st minute before Aboubakar added another at 85th minute.
Aboubakar struck again at the 87th minute with a right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner to take the game to penalty shootout without 30 minutes extra time to play.
Cameroon made no mistakes from the spot as they converted all five kicks, while Blati Toure missed his kick as the Indomitable Lions finished third.
Meanwhile, the Indomitable Lions Coach, has said his team demonstrated a strength of character to beat Burkina Faso.
Oliveira speaking at a post-match news conference noted that in spite of that the team was down by three goals, they showed character to claim the third place.
“We had a first objective which was to play the final but it was decided on details in the semi-final against Egypt.
“Today, we demonstrated the strength of character of this group and we won on penalties,” he said.
The coach also explained his reason for having a much changed lineup with tournament’s leading scorers and Karl Ekambi starting on the bench.
Both Ekambi and Aboubakar who were the captain and talisman of the team had to wait until the second half before they were introduced into the game.
Aboubakar was responsible for two of the three goals scored by Cameroon as he increased his overall goal tally to eight in the tournament.
“Barely 48 hours after playing extra time, I couldn’t take any risks with the players and that’s why I reshuffled my team.
“We saw several players play tonight and I’m satisfied with the performance of several players,” he said.