Saturday, January 29
•Gambia vs Cameroon ‐ 7pm
•Burkina Faso vs Tunisia – 10pm
January 30
•Egypt vs Morocco
•Senegal vs Equatorial Guinea
Gambia will hope to continue with their fairytale run when they face hosts Cameroon in the Quarterfinals of the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Playing at AFCON for the very first time, Gambia who are ranked 150th in the world, came second in Group F with 7 points to storm the last 16.
Then, they beat Mauritania, drew with Mali before stunning 2004 winners Tunisia in their last group game.
They went on to shock Equatorial Guinea thanks to Musa Barrow’s only strike as the minnows booked a place in the last eight.
And they will hope to stop hosts Cameroon as they seek to become the latest nation after South Africa in 1996 to reach the semifinals on their first attempt.
“Cameroon, one of the greatest nations in African and even world football, is the big favorite. I give my team a 20 percent chance. But we are used to it and since I took office, it has always been the case,” the Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet said, as quoted by CAF.
“We had to fight against stronger teams than us and we managed to get by. Against Cameroon, we will not be afraid, we will play to the fullest. It’s a bonus match. We visited Limbé, Bafoussam and now Douala, and we want to continue to Yaoundé”.
The Scorpions will be without Yusupha Njie who was sent off in their historical win against Equatorial Guinea in the last 16.
Cameroon, who will be banking on the home crowd at the Japoma Stadium in Douala, have no room for error and will be seeking to avoid a scare.
They looked non-convincing against Comoros who had a player sent off in the 7th minute and used a makeshift goalkeeper for the entire game.
Cameroon coach Antonio “Toni” Conceiçao said ahead of Gambia clash: “We have managed a positive course, a satisfactory record so far. Against Gambia, the objective is to win. We are a playful team that likes to take the game on its own. Against us. there will be a team that defends well and has 5-6 high quality attacking players. everything is possible even if we only consider victory.”
Knocked out by Nigeria in round of 16 in Egypt (2019 AFCON), Cameroon will be well aware that this is their biggest chance to win the 6th AFCON and close the gap against record winners Egypt who are on seven.
The Indomitable Lions have won AFCON in 1984, 1988, 2000, 2002 and 2017, were stopped by Congo at the semifinal stage in 1972, the other time they hosted Africa’s biggest football showpiece.
