The Eagles of Mali on Thursday dumped Defending Champions of the AFCON U17 tournament, Lion Cubs of Cameroon with two late classical goals to fly straight into the quarterfinals of the 2023 edition in Algeria from Group C.
Both teams tried to get the curtain raiser trying every trick in the books until the 86th minute when Mahmoud Barry pounced on Ibrahim Diarra pass to make the Malians run to the far corner to put their heads on the ground in a way of Islamic worship to Allah for granting them a goal.
Wonder boy Ibrahim Diarra again plotted the downfall of Cameroon making a thorough pass to Mamadou Doumbia who curved the ball into the net for the 2nd goal that made the Cameroonians stand as if their legs were glued to the turf seeing an awesome goal. It was the 2nd goal of Doumbia in two matches as his 25th minute goal against Burkina Faso on World’s Labor Day, May 1st gave them first victory.
Every record of the stats showed Mali were worthy winners as they had 11 shots at goal with 3 being accurate shots against 7 shots at goal of Cameroon with only one on target; Mali had more passes stringed in the night, 396 with 64% accuracy against Cameroon’s 325 and 54% accuracy.
Mali was so eager at scoring that they were caught offside four times and Cameroon none; but the defending champions were caught with 13-11 fouls; had 3-2 corner kicks with a yellow card at piece.
With the victory the match between Burkina Faso and Cameroon on Sunday at 2000 hours in Group C will be the winner takes all. Southern Sudan was sent home by CAF in the group for five players failing the MRI scan test that determines bone age and the rules says when four players of a team fall short of the test, the entire team is disqualified.
Mali and Cameroon met thrice before with Cameroon losing 0-1 on 7th November 2010; Mali won 3-0 on 21st November 2010 while on 16th February 2015 Mali caged the Lions 3-1.
Cameroon’s highest loss at this level was the 4-0 bashing from Ghana at Port-Gentil Gabon on 14th May 2017. Cameroon were champions at Swaziland 2003 when the team beat Sierra Leone 1-0 AET and Nigeria beat Egypt to bag the bronze. At the last competition in Tanzania 2019 Cameroon beat Guinea 5-3 via penalty shootout after a goalless full time to lift the trophy and Algeria then spanked Nigeria 2-1 to win the Bronze.
Mali had won the trophy in 2015 at Niger Republic beating South Africa 2-0 and then Guinea beat the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria 3-1 to win the Bronze; Mali again won in Gabon in 2017 beating Ghana by a lone goal when Guinea trounced Niger Republic 3-1 to win the Bronze. Mali were Runners-up at Botswana in 1997 when they lost to Egypt 0-1 in the final and Ghana defeated Ethiopia by a Lone goal to win the 3rd place match. Mali won the Bronze twice at Guinea 1999 when they beat Cameroon 10-0 and at Seychilles 2001 placing 4thin 1995 while hosting.
Tomorrow, Friday at 2000 hours simultaneously, Somalia will meet Senegal and Congo will tackle hosts Algeria in the last Group A matches.
On Saturday, Nigeria will test strength against South Africa while Zambia will face Morocco both matches will be played simultaneously at 2000 hours.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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