Cameroon came back to bring pride to a blundering goalkeeper as well as joy to those who stuck around when they were 3-0 down.
No fun
It's clearly bias. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) - the outfit that organises the Cup of Nations - still hasn't given the green light to Egypt's request to extend the tournament by a day so that their players can properly recuperate from Thursday night's semi-final victory over Cameroon. "I want to state to all Caf authorities that Senegal have one extra day to train and therefore maybe we should play the final on Monday," said Egypt's assistant coach Diaa al-Sayed. His nation might have had the most advanced scientific and technical civilization a couple of thousand years ago but quite a bit has evidently been lost in transition. Think it through: you've just beaten the hosts ... the last people you should be asking for favours are local organisers. Besides quite a lot of people covering the extravaganza are seated on the flights out of Cameroon on 7 February. The review is happy to report that an extension would pose no logistical problems. We are booked to leave on 8 February. Commendable clairvoyance.
Big cheer
Cameroon were 2-0 down at half-time to Burkina Faso in the third place play-off. So Cameroon coach Toni Conceicao sent out Vincent Aboubakar to warm up during the break with a couple of other players. On came the six goal hero of the land for the start of the second-half at the Stade Ahmadou Ahido. And four minutes later it was 3-0 Burkina Faso. Not the sort of impact expected. Still, around an hour later, it was all smiles. Aboubakar had bagged a brace in the comeback to 3-3. And he scored the first penalty in the shoot-out.
Faint hearts.
At 3-0 down, a fair few of the faithful started to leave the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo. Folly. Vincent and the boys were leaving it late for dramatic effect. "The way we won was wonderful," said Cameroon goalkeeper André Onana. "It shows how strong we are and that we have a lot of players with character so it's a great night for everyone and for me."
Andre oh no no
The Cameroon keeper André Onana had reasons to be cheerful after a catastrophic own-goal just before half-time. He turned to his left to catch Issa Kaboré's centre from the right by-line but the ball bounced off his chest and dropped into his goal. So bizarre that the ref initially awarded a goal-kick because it appeared more likely that the ball had actually crossed the by-line. No, a blunder. Moments before the goal, Onana admitted he had been vomiting. "I don't want to use that as an excuse," he insisted. "The goal was my mistake and my responsibility." Well, at least he didn't depart as sick as a parrot.
Africa Cup of Deflations
Amid the elation, let us ponder the heartbreak of the Burkina Faso players. Now they know how those lads from AC Milan felt after Liverpool came back from 3-0 down at half-time in the Champions League final in 2005. "I'm sad," said Burkina Faso coach Kamou Malo. "Especially after leading 3-0. After Aboubakar came on we knew trhat would make a difference to their play. Perhaps we could have changed things a little earlier. But that's football, a learning experience." Woe, woe and thrice woe.
