Cameroon beat 10-man Comoros 2-1 on Monday night in Yaoundé to reach the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Comoros, competing at the Cup of Nations for the first time, went into arguably the most important game in their footballing history with defender Chaker Alhadur standing in as the last line of defence after their three goalkeepers were ruled out through injury or the coronavirus.
Alhadur's mission became became even more difficult when his skipper, Nadjim Abdou, was shown a red card for his challenge on Moumi Ngamaleu in the seventh minute.
It then became a question of how many would the hosts rack up.
But Comoros, despite the loss of their veteran captain and defensive bedrock - reorganised and held the Cameroonians at bay.
Karl Toko Ekambi eventually made the breakthrough on the half hour mark after being set up by skipper Vincent Aboubakar.
Three mintues later, it was nearly 1-1. But the Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana flung himself to his left to palm away Ahmed Mogni's long range effort and then got up swiftly to fend off Mohamed Youssouf's shot with his foot.
Marksman
Aboubakar scored the second - his sixth goal of the tournament - in the 70th minute to bring relief to the Olembé Stadium.
Minutes after the Cameroon boss Toni Conceicao had removed his goalscorers, Comoros halved the advantage via Youssouf M'Changama's sumptuous free kick.
The strike unleashed a nervous last 10 minutes but his men held their ground.
Cameroon will take on another set of tournament debutants - Gambia - for a place in the semi-final after they edged past Guinea 1-0 on Monday afternoon in Bafoussam.
A game dominated by the two defences sparked into life after Musa Barrow's slickly dispatched goal in the 70th minute.
Guinea went into attack overdrive but the Gambians - the lowest ranked side in the competition - refused to yield.
