AFCONQ: Cameroon brush off Burundi to secure AFCON 2023 ticket

Five-time African champions Cameroon together with Southern Africa’s Namibia, on Tuesday night, completed the list of African nations that have qualified for Africa’s biggest event ,the CAF Africa Cup of Nations Côte d’Ivoire 2023.

The Indomitable Lions, who won the competition the last time Cote d’Ivoire hosted the event in 1884, were made to wait until the last day of the qualifiers, and they did their job at the Roumde Adija Stadium in Garoua on Tuesday night, overcoming a slow start to beat Burundi 3-0.

Burundi, who fielded Bandari’s Shassiri Nahimana in their starting eleven, looked like the more likely team to open the scoring in the first half as they forced returning Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana to make big saves in the first half hour.

The lamentations of Harambee Stars coach Engin Firat

The duo of Caleb Bimenyimana and Saidi Ntibazonkiza made decent attempts early on, but as the game went on, Cameroon got into their groove and almost made it count at the end of the half through Bayern Munich striker Maxim Choupo-Moting.

The second half was all different however, as Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo scored a few seconds after the restart as he latched to a loose ball inside the box.

Christopher Wooh then added the second for the home side in the 59th minute from another loose ball in the box from a corner, and after a far more solid display, got a third deep into added time through Vincent Aboubakar.

Their win meant that they topped the three team Group C with seven points from four games, with Namibia also securing qualification for the first time since 2019 in second place with five points.

Burundi finished bottom with four points.