Facts Ahead Cameroon versus Burkina Faso AfCON Opener

The 33^rd edition of Africa’s premier sports competition kicks off this Sunday afternoon. Below are some points of interests for a global audience.

• This is the second time that Cameroon will be hosting the competition as the 1972 edition was in that country.
• It at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon that a Nigerian first became an executive committee member of CAF when Oyo Orok Oyo won a seat at the General Assembly.
• Both Cameroon and Burkina Faso playing the opening match have also played the final match in the past. Cameroon played the final matches in 1984, 1988, 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2017. Burkina Faso were losing finalists to Nigeria in 2013.

●     This will be Cameroon and Burkina Faso’s third encounter in the Africa Cup of Nations. Both previous meetings came in the group phase: Cameroon won 1-0 in the 1998 before a 1-1 draw in 2017.

●         Cameroon are making their 20th appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations, a tally only bettered by Egypt (25), Cote d’Ivoire (24) and Ghana (23). Egypt (7) are the only team to have won the tournament on more occasions than The Indomitable Lions (5).

Cameroon are hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for the second time, 50 years after it was first held in the country, in 1972 – they finished third. Egypt are the last team to win the AFCON as hosts, it was in 2006.

●         This is Burkina Faso’s 12th appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations. In their previous 11 participations, they have either been eliminated in the group stages (8 times) or at least reached the semi-finals (3 times), including the final in 2013 (0-1 v Nigeria).

●         Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar has scored only one goal in his eight AFCON appearances (18 shots), although that was the winning goal in the 2017 final against Egypt (2-1).