The quarter-finals of the African Championship are underway. The first two games will be played on Saturday, with Gambia first meeting host Cameron (18:00) and then Burkina Faso facing off against Tunisia.
Gambia – Cameroon (18:00)
Gambia managed to surprise Mali in the home leg when they equalized to 1: 1 in the 90th minute, stunned Tunisia when they defeated them and also knocked out Guinea in the quarterfinals, in all games they scored only one goal that did the job and also absorbed only a draw in the opening round. This is especially surprising because for Gambia this is the first time she is participating in the competition. The team will try to train one of the stars for the meeting, striker Aveli Jello, who scored twice in the home leg and was replaced against Guinea in the eighth due to injury.
Therefore, the host of the championship certainly has reason to be apprehensive ahead of the meeting. Cameron did not impress too much in the home leg despite a win over Burkina Faso, a quartet against Ethiopia and a draw against Cape Verde, when in the eighth they defeated Comoros – who came up with a left-back between the posts and were left with 10 players from the seventh minute. “We’ve already seen teams that declare themselves underdogs and they rise and play at the highest level, so my players are aware of the danger,” said coach Tony Conceysao ahead of the game. In the Cameroonian side will rise Vincent Abubkar, the king of competition goals thanks to six goals in four games and the one who has already compared the record of Samuel Eto’o, the legendary former striker who also scored in four consecutive championship games to win Cameron.
Whoever wins the match will qualify for the semi-finals and there will meet the winner on Sunday between Egypt and Morocco.
Burkina Faso – Tunisia (21:00)
A big battle is expected between two teams that had a hard time impressing in the home stage and in the eighth, but are now within touching distance of the last four stages, expecting to shift gears and fight as much as they can for a place in the semifinals. Burkina Faso surrendered to host Cameroon in the opening game, but advanced one step thanks to a 0-1 draw at Cape Verde, a 1-1 draw against Ethiopia and a successful penalty shootout against Gabon in the eighth. His collection Dayo falls in Corona and only near the game will it be clear if he can be included in the squad.
Tunisia, on the other hand, were very disappointed and lost to Mali at first, but fortunately did not have a hard time defeating weak Mauritania and went up despite another loss to Gambia and despite dozens verified to Corona in the squad. In the eighth, despite everything, 0: 1 stunned the strong Nigeria and thus became one of the top candidates to win. Wahib Hazari, the Tunisian star who played just four minutes against Nigeria following the Corona, is expected to return to the squad as well as Farouk Mustafa who ran a suspension.
Whoever wins the match will qualify for the semi-finals and there will meet the winner on Sunday between Senegal and Equatorial Guinea.