Cameroon date Guinea in Afcon finals
Angola defender Porfirio Abrantes vies for the ball against Nigeria’s striker Mayowa Abayomi during the third position playoff encounter of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Angola won 2-1 to take home Bronze medals. PHOTO | Anthony Siame
What you need to know:
- Much anticipation awaits the finals following a classic display of soccer by both sides in their previous matches
Dar es Salaam. The U-17 Africa Cup of Nations reaches its climax today when Guinea take on Cameroon at the National Stadium from 4pm.
Much anticipation awaits the finals following a classic display of soccer by both sides in their group stage matches and semi-finals.
However, Guinea lost 2-0 in their opening match of the Group B held at the Chamazi Complex, on the outskirts of the Dar es Salaam City.
Guinea team head coach Camara Mohammed said he was optimistic about clinching the title against Cameroon in their encounter.
Mohammed said his players were in top form and were ready to give their best in the match. He said they had rectified all mistakes detected in their previous matches and were taking the encounter seriously.
“We have analysed all mistakes we committed in the previous encounters. We do not expect to repeat them and my players are in top form and have promised to win the title,” said Mohammed.
He said Cameroon is a strong team, but they have taken all precautions ahead of the encounter.
For his part, Cameroon head coach Libiih Thomas said they were targeting both victory and silverware. “Our efforts in the previous matches were to emerge atop. It will not be an easy match as Guinea want to revenge and we also want to stretch our lead and make more records,” said Thomas.
He explained that they will be taking the match afresh and forgetting about the past victory against Guinea.
African Football governing body (Caf) President Ahmad Ahmad from Madagascar and the first Vice-President Amaju Melvin Pinnick from Nigeria will attend the encounter, according to the chairman of the Organizing Committee, Lesley Liunda.
Liunda said various Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) zone football governing bodies will attend the finals.
“We do also expect to see various African football governing bodies to attend the final day of the event, which has been staged for two weeks with lots of successes, despite the fact that Tanzania’s U-17 soccer team, Serengeti Boys, failed to qualify for the finals,” said Liunda.
