Bertrand Traore of Aston Villa and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting of Bayern Munich have given their perspective concerning the Africa Cup of Nations opener between Cameroon and Burkina Faso which took place on Sunday, January 9, 2022.
Choupo-Moting believes Cameroon won the game because of the team’s determination to win. While Traore believes Burkina Faso lost because of the country’s lack of experience.
Futballnews has reported that the 2021 AFCON opener ended 2-1 in favor of the host country, Cameroon. The national team of Cameroon came from a goal down to steal the first victory in Group A.
From the start of the game, Burkina Faso looked like the team that could win the match especially after 25-year-old midfielder Gustavo Sangaré scored the opening goal in the 24th minute.
Unfortunately for Burkina Faso national team, the country’s most reliable player Bertrand Traore committed a foul in the eighteen-yard box that earned Cameroon a penalty kick.
Cameroon’s 29-year-old striker, Vincent Aboubakar stepped up to convert the spot-kick. When the game was 1-1, Burkinabe made another defensive blunder that resulted in a spot-kick which Aboubakar also stepped up to score.
The two first-half spot-kicks Cameroon scored were enough to cancel the early goal Burkina Faso scored. In the second half, the two teams failed to score more goals. Hence, the game ended 2-1 in favor of Cameroon.
In an interview with BBC after the game, Bertrand Traore admitted that Burkina Faso lost to Cameroon on Sunday because the national team lacked experience.
“We had the game and then we threw it away,” Aston Villa forward said.
“We had a lack of experience because we have got a young team…
“To play in the opening game against Cameroon is not easy. We gave everything and fought to the end, but the only thing we didn’t do well was the game management.
“We gave away two penalties. The first was a mistake by myself, and the second one we could have tried to avoid.
“We had an opportunity to have three points or at least one point, but the most important thing is to learn from this.
“We still have two games to win and go through. We will do everything to be able to qualify.”
On the other hand, Cameroonian forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting claimed that the 2-1 victory over Burkina Faso on Sunday showed the mentality of the host country.
The 32-year-old Bayern Munich forward stressed that he and his teammates in the Cameroonian team believed in themselves.
“It shows our mentality,” he said. “It is not easy to deal with this situation when you go a goal behind at home and you know you want to win. We handled it well and that is good for us.
“We believe in ourselves and told ourselves before the game that no matter what happens, we continue until the end.”
The next point of action for Cameroon is to take on Ethiopia while Burkina Faso are expected to play Cape Verde. The two Group A games are scheduled to take place on Thursday.
