The long-awaited 33rd Africa Cup of Nations (2021 AFCON) competition finally kicks off and takes center stage after a year delay due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Despite negativity once again being unfairly levelled at the tournament by some elite-level European-based managers due to player unavailability, the world’s second-biggest continent is set to put on a show for this competition.
For a very long time, Cameroon will have the tournament played on home soil for the first time in fifty years.
The five times winners will play Burkina Faso in the first of fifty-two (52) games. The visitors arrive as FIFA’s 60th best-ranked nation, just ten spots below the hosts (50), and will be looking to go a game further than their third-place finish at the 2017 AFCON tournament.
The Indomitable Lions’ captain, Vincent Aboubakar netted three times during qualification though he’s only scored once in eight prior AFCON finals appearances. However, the services of Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting will be missing after picking up a knee injury in November 2021.
Aston Villa forward, Bertrand Traoré scored in the last AFCON qualification game, and Burkina Faso is unbeaten across his six previous competitive goalscoring matches, winning five and drawing just one.
The fixture is set to kickoff at 16:00 GMT at the Stade Paul Biya, Yaoundé with Algerian Mustapha Ghorbal appointed to be the center man.
By: Emmanuel Safo
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Source: Sports