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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Burkina Faso fight back to hold Cameroon

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LIBREVILLE: A brilliant Benjamin Moukandjo free-kick was not enough for Cameroon to win their opening game at the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday as Burkina Faso battled back to draw 1-1. Moukandjo, the Indomitable Lions captain, curled in a superb effort from a dead ball 10 minutes before the interval in the Group A game at the Stade de l’Amitie in Libreville. However, 2013 runners-up Burkina Faso recovered to equalise with a quarter of an hour left, Issoufou Dayo bundling the ball in with a close range header after Banou Diawara’s free-kick was saved. The result means there is nothing between any of the sides in Group A after hosts Gabon were held to a 1-1 draw by Guinea-Bissau in the tournament’s opening match earlier in the day.


Gabon play Burkina Faso and Cameroon face Guinea-Bissau in the next round of matches on Wednesday at the same venue. Cameroon have won the Cup of Nations four times but their build-up to this year’s tournament has been overshadowed by a raft of withdrawals by key players, including Liverpool defender Joel Matip and Schalke striker Eric Choupo-Moting. Nevertheless, Hugo Broos’s side have not lost since a narrow friendly defeat to France in May last year and they started well, an organisational gaffe that prevented the national anthems being played. — AFP


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