Cameroon will play hosts to Ethiopia in their own backyard for the next set of fixtures in the Africa Cup of Nations this Thursday with the host nation looking to make it two wins out of two and all but confirm their place in the next stage of the tournament.
They met with Burkina Faso in their opening game of the AFCON, and it was far from an easy clash for Cameroon.
#ECHOSDELATANIERE 🇨🇲🦁⚽🔥 #MATCHDAY #Ethiopie 🇪🇹 🆚 🇨🇲 #Cameroun⏲️ 17H00🏟️ Olembe Stadium#GoLions#LetsRoarTogether#AllezLesLions pic.twitter.com/yH2g6NyLJV— Les Lions Indomptables Officiel (@LIndomptables) January 13, 2022
#ECHOSDELATANIERE 🇨🇲🦁⚽🔥 #MATCHDAY #Ethiopie 🇪🇹 🆚 🇨🇲 #Cameroun⏲️ 17H00🏟️ Olembe Stadium#GoLions#LetsRoarTogether#AllezLesLions pic.twitter.com/yH2g6NyLJV
They went 1-0 down following a Gustavo Sangare goal in the 24th minute, when the Burkina Faso man rifled in a sweetly met strike to cause an upset for the home supporters.
Soon after, however, the host nation clawed their way back into the game as Vincent Aboubakar netted two penalties on his 78th cap for his country and it now leaves him as the top scorer in the competition so far.
Both goals would come from the penalty spot and in the first half too. But, both spot kicks were neatly taken and never really in any doubt.
Aboubakar has now scored four times in his past three games for his country as he also netted twice in the 4-0 win over Malawi back in September.
It puts him in excellent form and Cameroon on a six-game winning streak and perhaps one of the favourites to now take the trophy and at the very least, get to the latter stages.
Cameroon’s major issues here heading into the game, however, will be their lack of efforts on goal shown in the Burkina Faso clash.
Indeed, they scored twice, but this was two penalties, and they only had a further two shots on target throughout the game.
Ethiopia, on the other hand, are in torrid form. Yared Bayeh Belay was sent off after just 12 minutes in their opening 1-0 loss to Cape Verde and will now miss this game.
One shot on target would come in the entire match for them, before Julio Tavares would punish the Ethiopians just before half time.
It would be the game’s only goal but it all but summed up how poor Ethiopia have been in the past four months, as they have now extended their winless streak to seven in official competitions, with only a 3-2 win over Sudan in a friendly being their taste of victory since August.
Given their form and Cameroon’s win over Burkina Faso, Forebet expects them to kick on here and get the win in a game that sees under 2.5 goals.