Otherwise, that’s us; thanks all for your company and comments. Peace out.
Righto, Senegal, the defending champs, lead the group with three points and meet Cameroon, on one, next in what should be a jazzer; Guinea have one too, and face the Gambia, on zero.
Full time: Cameroon 1-1 Guinea
What a result that is for Guinea, who will fancy themselves to beat the Gambia and give Senegal game. Cameroon, meanwhile, should still qualify, but to do anything in this competition, they’ll not only have to play better than that, they’ll have to play different to that.
90+6 min “It was definitely a sore-looking one and a clear yellow at least,” returns James Humphries, “and I take the point about not standing on folks’ achilles, but about two minutes before that red Cameroon stopped a Guinea break with an absolute bodycheck in the centre circle - no card for, it looked to me, a nailed-on professional foul. As so often, the real pisser is inconsistency, especially when it comes to bigger teams getting the decisions. (don’t even get me started on players grabbing the ball when they /reckon/ they’ve been fouled, and being or not being booked depending on what the ref had for breakfast, afaict).”
I agree with all of that. There’ve been loads of challenges in this game that merited yellows but escaped.
90+6 min Change for Guinea, Konate replaced by Sylla I.
90+4 min Camara is penalised for a foul, but another poor free-kick from Nkoudou, who takes them all like he’s prime David Beckham, wastes another.
90+3 min Cameroon can’t build momentum, ringfence the box or sustain attacks and now it’s Guinea on the attack, Moriba allowed plenty of time to eye up a shot from 25 yards, which he drags wide.
90+1 min We’ll have six added minutes.
90 min Nkoudou takes possession, back to goal, and Diakite hauls him down; free-kick Cameroon, 35 yards out, but when the ball’s headed back across, Kone falls upon it.
88 min BUT HAVE A LOOK! Anguissa darts in behind and to the by-line, Tchmadeu forces across the box, and Ekambi takes a decent first touch, turning and escaping Diakite. As he swivels to shoot, a goal looks certain, but rather than find the corner or the roof, he fires straight at Kone who saves diving to his right.
86 min Like Nigeria, Cameroon will do well to remember that it’s rare the best side in the groups is the side dancing about after the final, but they’ve been absolute nonsense and look like a side that either doesn’t have a plan or has a plan but it’s rubbish.
85 min Another change for Guinea, Bayo, the goalscorer, departing and Kante arriving.
84 min But now Ekambi, who’s barely featured, tees-up Kemen after Nkoudou bundles through Casteletto’s cross, but the shot is poor and flies behind.
83 min I said at half-time that Cameroon had been horrendous; well, they still have, devoid of any cohesion. They send in crosses, and that’s about it.
81 min Since Magri departed, Casteletto has become more involved down the right, seeing another cross kicked clear, and Guinea will now have to defend another as Conte sends a cross behind. The corner comes to nowt.
78 min Casteletto crosses from the right, catches Conte in the follow-through, and that’s the last thing Cameroon wanted because the Guinea man takes the opportunity to waste another couple of minutes.
77 min Cameroon aren’t moving the ball quickly enough nor at they flooding the box, but now Casteletto swings a fine cross to the back stick, where Nkoudou, leaping all over Conte, can’t only tickle a glance wide. That wasn’t a great chance, but it was the best one the favourites have created in the last 15 minutes.
Updated
75 min Now Cameroon makes changes, Gonzalez and Tchamadeu – of Stoke City – replacing Wooh and Magri.
73 min Cooling time.
72 min Diakite and Kamano play a nice one-two, but Yongwa does really well to slide in and come away with the ball.
71 min Cameroon don’t have loads on the bench, but I’m surprised we’ve not seen a change because they’re playing 10 men and not dominating.
69 min Again, Cameroon move down the right, and Wooh charges forward from defence, but Diakite clears behind and the corner comes to nowt, Yongway sticking a poor cross behind when the ball ends up with him.
68 min What do we make of Ondoa’s mauve and lilac outfit? I can’t make up my mind.
67 min Ekambi, who’s been quiet, pumps into the box, and when the ball’s cleared, Ntcham leathers a shot over the top.
Updated
65 min Cameroon have gone quiet again. Guinea are managing the game well.
63 min Ondoa punches the free-kick clear, and Diakhaby is booked for yanking back the breaking Ntcham.
62 min Again, Guinea counter, Diakite reaching the ball before Moukoudi, nicking the ball away from him, and wearing the inevitable scything; Moukoudi is booked.
61 min “In live blogs and match summaries,” says Peter Oh, “I would like to see red cards annotated with descriptors.
For example:
*Clumsy
**Nasty
***Criminal.”
And ****Glorious
60 min Our players enjoy a cooling break.
58 min Magri has been a good outlet this half, and he has a cross deflected behind by Sylla; the corner is nodded out to someone, Kemen, I think, and his low shot almost takes a telling deflection but Diakite does well to step over it as it passes wide.
58 min “Many want to compare Guirassy to another Stuttgart legend, Mario Gomez,” returns Kári Tulinius, “but I think he’s different, less of a poacher. Gomez’s defining quality was that he’d jump into a meat-grinder if he thought there’d be a goal on the other side of it, but Guirassy has more finesse to his game. He’s very good at holding up the ball and bringing others into play, often unselfishly. His runs routinely surprise opposition defenders, and he can create pockets of space in crowded penalty boxes. So I’d say he’s an all-round number nine, with my only caveats being that he does tend to get injured, and confidence seems to affect him a lot.”
Ahahaha, imagine the state of him after 10 minutes at Old Trafford.
57 min Changes for Guinea: off go Guilavogui and Conte A; Diakite and Conte F replace them.
56 min …and he humps over the bar as if doing so on purpose.
54 min Jeanvier is late on Magri, introducing studs to ankle, and Cameroon have another free-kick, 25 yards out, right of centre. Again, it’ll be N’Koudou with it…
53 min I’d pay good money to watch this scrap.
53 min Cameroon win a free-kick down the left, the position similar to the one from which N’Koudou just crossed for the goal, but this time it’s cleared easily enough.
GOAL! Cameroon 1-1 Guinea (Magri 51)
This time, N’Koudou finds a decent cross, and though there’s no Vincent Janssen waiting for it, the delivery is fantastic, swung in to the back post where Magri is up all over Sylla, diverting his header down and back whence it came into the far side-netting. Cameroon needed that!
50 min The corner comes to nowt and for a second, Guinea have a counter, but Guilavogui’s pass is poor and now Cameroon build again.
49 min There’s a little more purpose about Cameroon now, Magri marauding down the right and crossing, but Sylla slides in to block behind.
48 min Guinea have looked decent on the counter so far and here they come now, Moriba driving through midfield only for Bayo to go too early, rule himself out of a through-pass, and see the move break down.
47 min “I thought that was harsh, as it goes,” writes James Humphries. “Could actually have seen him getting two yellows for each tread, but taken as a whole that looked like a booking-and-a-half at most; certainly ‘seen ‘em given’ territory, but I don’t know that a yellow is a clear and obvious error. Bloody VAR; at least I know who to get behind now, though!”
I know what you mean – it looked clumsy rather than nasty, but much as I’d enjoy the return of the reducer, I don’t mind if treading on someone’s achilles like he did is a strict liability red. Similarly, though, had the ref felt it was accidental, I’d not have minded if he’d stayed on.
46 min Off we go again. Can Cameroon, without a shot on target in the game, find something?
Back come our teams…
Half-time entertainment:
Half-time: Cameroon 0-1 Guinea
And Guinea have been well worth it; Cameroon have been horrendous. But they’ll be playing against 10 for the remainder, so join me in 10 to see how we go.
45+6 min Er not really. He whips towards the back post and Koné grabs well.
45+5 min Free-kick Cameroon, not far from the left corner of the box. Can N’Koudou find a decent delivery this time?
Kamano, the Guinea captain, is sent off!
He might’ve accidentally perpetrated the heel-trample, I guess, but there was no chance he was getting away with that, and his mates will now have to defend their lead with 10 men.
45+3 min He looks, looks again and looks again. I’m not sure why he needs so many goes at it.
45+1 min With Magri already booked for a foul on Kamano, Kamano is now booked for a foul on Magri. I’m choking up here! But it’s a nasty one, the old tread-on the-achilles – that’s a red card offence, I’m afraid, and for extra points he lands on the other ankle with his other foot – and the ref is going to VAR for a looksee!
Updated
45 min We’ll have four added minutes.
45 min Searching for Eto’o shirt, I came by this! ‘s
43 min N’Koudou isolates Conte, goes at him, and runs over the by-line. Of course he does.
42 min Cameroon give it away in centrefield and Moriba moves away with the ball, so Wooh fouls him immediately. He’s not booked, I’m not sure how, which reminds me that earlier, Magri was but I didn’t quite note it.
40 min Samuel Eto’o, the president of the Cameroon FA, is wearing a shirt that has a collar but that doesn’t fold; interesting. Meantime, there’s a break because Ekambi has caught Diakhaby with a stray elbow; he’ll be fine.
39 min Cameroon are playing a little better now, Kemen charging through midfield and finding Magri to the right … but whose cross has way too much on it, sailing beyond the back post.
38 min But Cameroon soon win a corner, Ntcham shooting low and hard when the ball breaks to him, but the effort is blocked, then N’koudo finds a better cross … that still winds up behind.
37 min Excellent fee from Kemen, who slides infield to Anguissa … only for Diakhaby to nail him him with another crunching and timely challenge.
36 min He cannot, Kone coming early to claim.
35 min N’Koudou goes down the right and Guilavogui shoves him over, so up come the big men from the back; can the Spurs legend find a better delivery this time?
Updated
34 min I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking of this scene every time we hear “cooling” used as a verb.
33 min We go again…
31 min Time for a cooling break.
30 min They are, though, starting to enjoy a bit more possession, and as I type, Magri intercepts a pass out of defence! But he can’t slide Ekambi in and Guinea counter, Sylla seeing Ondoa off his line and trying a lob from 35 yards … which drops over the top, though the keeper had it covered.
29 min There’s no getting away from it: so far, Cameroon have been miserable.
27 min Back to Guirassy, how would we describe him? Is he a predator, a poacher, an old skool number nine?
26 min Better from Cameroon, Ekambi finding Magri, who whips in a cross … that’s just behind Moukoudi.
25 min So far, Cameroon have looked way less threatening than did Nigeria against Equatorial Guinea yesterday. That is a low bar, and they’re nowhere near getting over it.
23 min Yongwa tries a ball down the channel but Diakhaby, the Valencia centre-back, is over really quickly to hump clear. He’s had a really good start to the game.
21 min Magri comes around the side of Kamano, knocks him over while winning the ball, and is booked. That looked a little harsh to me.
21 min Ah, excellent, our Bundesliga scout returns. “It’s a bit hard for me, as a Stuttgart fan, to separate my fervent desire for Guirassy to be as great as he appears, from how I’d dispassionately rate him,” says Kári Tulinius. “That said, he already seemed like a very good loan player last season, and I was surprised that Stuttgart were allowed to buy him for just nine million Euros. I wasn’t expecting him to be a goal-a-game striker, but he seemed like at least a twenty-a-season forward. I don’t know how he’d do at Manchester United, given how messy that binfire is, but he’d probably fit in nicely at West Ham. Though obviously I’m hoping he’ll stay in Stuttgart.'”
20 min And from earlier…
18 min Casteletto slides in and wins a huge challenge with Camara, who hurts himself making a foul. N’Kodou will swing over the free-kick, only to hang it past the back post; maybe he thought Vincent Janssen would be there.
17 min “Lived in Cameroon for a short while in 1990-91,” tweets @FFraserP. It was my first intro to AFCON. Been hooked ever since.”
Tell us more!
15 min It’s nothing new, but it’s nice to see Georges-Kevin N’Koudou and Clinton N’Jie playing together again. If Cameroon perform badly and Song loses his job, Mauricio Pochettino might soo be seeking a new one.
13 min Back come Cameroon, N’Koudou moving down the right and slamming over a superb cross that picks out Anguissa … but he can only head wide! He’s had better five-minute periods!
Updated
11 min Cameroon protest the goal claiming some kind of foul, anywhere, but the ref isn’t having it and rightly so.
GOAL! Cameroon 0-1 Guinea (Bayo 10)
A ball into the box sees Bayo on its left side, punching a shot which Ondoa saves, then a monstrous challenge from Moukoudi averts catastrophe on the follow-up. But rather than clear, Kemen dawdles on the ball just outside his own box, he’s mugged by Camara, the ball runs loose, and Bayo slips between Ondoa’s legs for a shock opener! Asi megusta a él!
Updated
9 min “Harrykaned,” returns Joe Pearson. “Spot on! For all the kudos, that habit makes him a dirty player for me.”
It’s an odd one because no official has ever really addressed it.
7 min Moriba swings over a decent cross and, at the front post, Diakhaby picks up its flight quickdr than anyone else, leaning in front of his marker to glance a header that Ondoa saves easily enough.
7 min A foul from Yongna gives Guinea a frer-kick out on the right…
6 min Every time I look at my teamsheet and see the Guinea striker, Bayo, I’ve got Chimo’s classic early-90s, banger going about my heed.
4 min Syalla bursts down the wing and hammers a low cross that misses everyone, before the ref calls us back – to get on the ball he harrykaned VYongna, shoving his legs while he was in the air. One day, someone’s going to get seriously hurt having that done to them.
Updated
4 min Is anyone from or has anyone been to Cameroon or Guinea? If so, feel free to get in touch with anecdotes and observations.
2 min Cameroon knock is sideways along the back four, avoiding every urge to pass forwards. Why, it’s almost as if Rigobert Song, their manager, played for Gerard Houllier’s Liverpool!
1 min Off we go!
Isn’t this nice: Fabrice Ondoa, the Cameroon keeper, is cousins with André Onana.
I was seeking a “Cousiiiin” from the Bear, but in the meantime let’s make do with this.
Anthem time, and don’t the Caermoon lads have at theirs. Great stuff, and excellent tracky tops too.
Our teams are tunnelled, and here they come!
I was looking for fan photos but this is even better. Football, man – what a creation.
“As Ric Ocasek sang,” writes Joe Pearson, “You’re all I’ve got tonight. I am not going to sign up for another subscription to watch football (since I’ve already got THREE), so your MBM is my only access to Afcon action. No pressure!”
It’s a funny thing, isn’t it – monopolies are generally considered to be bad for the consumer, but when it comes to televised sport, they’re great, so of course we’re dneied them. Might, though, be worth checking whether you can stream the game – you can in the UK as far as I know.
Seeing as we’re here, here’s this week’s Football Daily, on the Reading travesty.
Email! “You’d think that with Guirassy out injured, “ says Kári Tulinius, “Guinea shouldn’t be able to stand up to Cameroon, though that might be me talking with my Stuttgart fan hat on, as VfB are a different proposition without him. That they’re missing two defensive midfielders in Touré and Diawara also doesn’t bode well.”
Ah, I’m glad you’ve messaged on this point. I’ve not seen Giurassy over 90, but I guess I’m suspicious of his sudden late-20s explosion. Is he serious, or just a decent player enjoying a streak?
Meanwhile the triple league champions have 115 charges against them with no schedule as to their resolution. Just another day in the life of the Greatest League In The WorldTM.
Also going on:
In all the palaver I didn’t properly pay attention to Onana’s shoes, also worth a look-in. Maybe he was wearing them for Manchester United’s Champions League games – it’d certainly explain a few things.
André Onana, meanwhile, is in the ground but not playing following an unscheduled flight detour – inclement weather meant he landed in Abidjan not Yamoussoukro.
More importantly, though, into what shop can one go and request an outfit that looks exactly like Accra’s Sky Bar?
🚨 | André Onana is currently stranded 150 miles from Cameroon's AFCON fixture against Guinea, which kicks off at 17:00 GMT today. [Sports Vibes] pic.twitter.com/Az3YqyAoL4
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) January 15, 2024
🚨🇨🇲 JUST IN: André Onana will not play for Cameroon against Guinea. He is at the stadium but is not in the squad. #MUFC pic.twitter.com/zIowV7On0d
— mufcmpb (@mufcMPB) January 15, 2024
Updated
Big misses for both sides: Cameroon are without Vincent Aboubakar, while Guinea have no Serhou Guirassy following his warm-up match injury against Nigeria.
Let's have some teams
Cameroon (4-3-3-): Ondoa; Castelletto, Wooh, Moukoudi, Yongwa; Ntcham, Kemen, Anguissa; Magri, Toko Ekambi, N’Koudou. Subs: Ngamaleu, Tolo, Njié, Ateba, Tchamedeu, Gonzalez, Epassy, Neyou, Moumbagna, Elliott, Ngapandouetnbu, Tchato.
Guinea (4-2-3-1): Koné; Conte A, Jeanvier, Diakhaby, Sylla S; Moriba, Konaté; Guilavogui, Camara A, Kamano; Bayo. Subs: Keita, Sylla I, Sow, Keita, Diakité, Camara MA, Cissé K, Cissé S, Camara M, Kanté, Conte F.
Senegal, the defending champions, have beaten the 10 men of the Gambia 3-0, so currently top the group.
Preamble
It’s been a rollicking start to Afcon with shocks and late goals already to the fore. Already, Nigeria have been held by Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde beaten Ghana, and Mozambique denied victory over Egypt by a 97th-minute penalty. Or, in other words, yesterday was proper.
So far today has been less so, Senegal recording a routine win over the Gambia in the opening Group C match. But Cameroon, champions in 2017 and third last time out in 2021, are not the force they once were, with Bryan Mbuemo is injured and Eric Choupo-Moting left out. They do, though, still have André-Frank Zambo Anguissa loading bullets for Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko Ekambi, tournament leading scorers last time out, so will feel confident of a decent showing this afternoon.
Guinea, though – managed by Kaba Diawara of late-90s fame – have in their ranks Serhou Guirassy, whose career has suddenly exploded. So far this season, he has 17 goals in 14 Bundesliga games, and though he might not make today’s game, with Naby Keita and Ilaix Moriba there to provide for him, they’ve plenty of avenues to aggravate more fancied opponents in the next two.
This, then should be another entertaining match, and for those on the Greenwich Meridian, the perfect end-of-day work-skive, and what could possible be better than that?
Kick-off: 5pm GMT
Updated
