Burkina Faso stun holders Cameroon, helps RSA progress

Burkina Faso scored two goals in two minutes, coming from behind to beat defending champions Cameroon 2-1 and dump them out of the TotalEnergies U17 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The victory in Annaba on Sunday evening meant the Burkinabe finish second in the group with three points while Cameroon finish bottom after back to back losses.

Their second hope of squeezing in as one of the best two third placed teams also fell flat out with Group B’s South Africa progressing by virtue of scoring more goals, as they both finished with a -3 goal difference.

Burkina Faso will now face Nigeria in the quarterfinals.

Cameroon had gone ahead through Dorinel Yondjo, but a pair of identical goals from Souleymane Alio, separated by two minutes and nine seconds, made the difference for Burkina Faso.

Yondjo had broken the deadlock in the 61st minute when he picked a brilliant through ball from Essono Dipanda. He did well to dribble past the keeper before slamming into an empty net.

But, Burkina Faso responded when they upped the tempo in attack and Alio ran through to an Ousmane Camara through ball before sliding it past the keeper.

Two minutes later, he ran on to another brilliant line breaking through pass before shooting low past the custodian to complete the turnaround for the West Africans.

It had been a show of good attacking football especially in the second half when both teams stepped up their efforts for a goal.

Cameroon’s Abakar Aladji had a good chance six minutes after the restart when he battled through on the left but his low shot rolled across the face of goal begging for a touch. A minute later, Yondjo slashed in a cross from the left, but Dipanda’s close range diving header met a brilliant save from the Burkina keeper.

Burkina also had some chances with an Aboubacar Camara header off a corner coming off the crossbar while the had another shot flying inches wide.