The Cameroonian host has won the African Cup while opening in the shadow of viruses

Cameroonian captain Vincent Aboubakar scored two penalties in a row, following the host country’s 2-1 win over Burkina Faso in the opening match of the African Nations Cup, raising the mood for the tournament piled up by the coronavirus pandemic. .

Aboubakar scored the first penalty on the right in the 40th minute and the second on the left in the third minute of the first half. He left many people in the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde with a sigh of relief after waiting for two years to delay the African Cup until he reached the Central African country. Cameroonian 88-year-old President Paul Biya smiled broadly at the end.

Cameroon was knocked out of the 2019 tournament because of problems with preparations and the 2021 host was delayed by a year due to the virus.

It seemed as though Gustavo Sangaré was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. He ran to his chest in celebration of the blow. Cameroonian fans had their heads in their hands. But Burkina Faso lost the lead in the final minutes of the first half with two irresponsible defenders.

VAR rescue

Burkina Faso captain Bertrand Traoré introduced André-Frank Zambo to Anguissa to give Cameroon the first penalty, which Judge Mustapha Ghorbal gave him only after consulting the VAR.

VAR is used for the first time in every African Cup match. It was used from the quarterfinals onwards.

Shortly afterwards, Issoufou Dayo made a slippery slope to miss Nouhou Tolori and Aboubakar kept quiet for the second time.

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VAR was also instrumental in the second round of Group A of the opening day, where Cape Verde beat Ethiopia 1-0, also in Olembe. Referee Hélder Martins Rodrigues de Carvalho was shown a yellow card for Ethiopian defender Yared Bayeh for a foul on striker Júlio Tavares, but was sent off in the 12th minute after consulting the VAR. Tavares went head-to-head during a break in Cape Verde.

The tournament was officially inaugurated a few hours earlier at the newly rebuilt Olembe Stadium, full of color, with red, green, yellow, white and blue dancers in a short opening ceremony in the middle of the pitch. Some of them wore matching masks, reminding us that the month-long football show in Africa is on the rise in the global rise in virus cases driven by the omicron variant.

‘Invincible Lions’

An image of a giant computer-generated lion walked up the roof of the stadium when the ceremony began, a gesture to the Cameroonian team, known as the “Invincible Lions”. The red, green and yellow smoke – the colors of the Cameroonian flag – came from a large replica of the trophy, which marks the 50th anniversary of the African Cup, to mark the end of the celebrations that marked Cameroon’s biggest sporting moment.

Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, was present, as was Biya, President of Cameroon since 1982. Biya didn’t wear a mask and neither did many football fans.

The 60,000-seat stadium was almost full for the Cameroon match, although after the organizers imposed a last-minute restriction, only fans fully immersed in any of the 52 matches will be able to enter evidence of negative virus testing. Attendance is limited to 80 percent of the stadium’s capacity for home team games and 60 percent for other games.

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The tournament will still be difficult to prevent from being regularly interrupted by infections and outbreaks, as many of the 24 teams are accumulating virus cases.

“Today, the fact that we are all here shows that we believe in ourselves, that we believe in the people of Cameroon and that we believe in the people of Africa,” said Patrice Motsepe, President of the African Football Confederation. He said it would be the best African Cup ever.

However, this African Cup has been the target of more skepticism than most. There have been rumors that he will be delayed again, while European clubs have expressed concern that health protocols will not be enough to protect African players. CAF rejected the criticism and moved on.

“The people of Cameroon are showing the rest of Africa, the rest of the world, that we can be successful …,” Motsep said, before the crowd cheered him to stop the sentence.