AFCON: Final four teams ready to fight for a place in finals

Four teams are left from the 24 that started the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon last month. However, only one of them can be crowned the Kings of African football. Hence, the next set of fixtures remain as important as the rest that have been played.

Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Egypt and Senegal are the teams left. There are eleven titles between all four, but it is Egypt that has a big percentage of the titles with seven titles won, while Cameroon have won the remaining four. This means Senegal and Burkina Faso are still dreaming of their first titles respectively albeit only one of the two can progress to the finals.

Senegal, who beat Equatorial Guinea 3-1 in the quarter-finals will hope for better luck if they can beat Burkina Faso on Wednesday at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium. The Burkinabe were losing finalists to Nigeria in 2013 l, while Senegal most recently in 2019 lost to Algeria in Egypt.

Egypt, the 2019 hosts whose’s last chance of winning an eighth title was in 2017 when they lost to Cameroon, can now avenge that loss.

However, it won’t be easy for the Egyptians led by Mohamed Salah as they have had to grow into the game, while the Cameroonians have been unbeaten, with Karl Toko Ekambi and Vincent Aboubakar registering five and six goals respectively in the competition so far.

It’s not a conspiracy if there are fears for the indomitable Lions as they go into what is definitely their toughest match yet in the competition, having breezed past Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Comoros and The Gambia.

The repeat of the 2017 Final will be played on Thursday at the Paul Biya Stadium, while the first semifinal will be on Wednesday between Sadio Mane’s Senegal and Burkina Faso.

The final match of the competition comes up on Sunday February 6, just after the third-place match on the same day.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu