Drogba makes Eto’o pay for penalty miss
Ivory Coast beat Cameroon 12-11 in an extraordinary penalty shoot-out at the African Cup of Nations.
Didier Drogba converted the winning penalty after Samuel Eto’o had sent his second spotkick soaring over the bar.
Both sides found the net with their first 11 penalties once extra-time had finished with the score locked at 1-1.
The Elephants’ victory is the highest-scoring shoot-out in Nations Cup. Both sides attempted to get the upper hand early on by flying into their tackles, but the game struggled to move above the pedestrian.
Ivory Coast’s Arouna Kone and Cameroon’s Eto’o exchanged long range shots before Eto’o missed a great chance on 40 minutes.
The tournament’s top scorer took advantage of an Ivorian error, cutting past Kolo Toure only for Jean-Jacques Tizie to save his close-range shot.
Cameroon started the second half with renewed energy, captain Rigobert Song sending a header flashing over the bar from Geremi’s corner.
Ivorian skipper Drogba was busy, too, twice hitting first-time volleys that surprised the Cameroon defence.
As normal time came to an end, Tizie had to be at his athletic best to keep out a stinging long-range drive from Cameroon left-back Thimothee Atouba.
Ivory Coast eventually broke the deadlock two minutes into extra time.
Substitute Bakari Kone was well placed to rifle in the loose ball after right-back Emmanuel Eboue’s powerful shot rebounded off the bar.
Seconds later Geremi hit the Ivorian bar, before Albert Ze Meyong took advantage of a muddle in the Elephants defence to equalise.
In the second period of extra time, Kolo Toure blocked Ze Meyong when the young Cameroon striker seemed set to score.
Then as time ran out, Hamidou was forced to dive to his left to keep out Ivory Coast substitute Romaric Ndri.
In the penalty shoot-out, every player scored with their first spotkick. Tizie thought he had denied Cameroon’s Alioum Saidou with the scores at 7-7, but the spotkick was retaken after the Ivory Coast keeper was adjudged to have strayed off his line.
The tie was eventually settled when Eto’o blazed over.
Cameroom: 16-Souleymanou Hamidou; 8-Geremi Njitap, 4-Rigobert Song ©, 23-Andre Bikey, 3-Thimothee Atouba; 14-Alioum Saidou, 7-Daniel
Ngom Kome, 20-Salomon Olembe (18-Roudolphe Douala 80), 11-Jean
Makoun; 15-Achille Webo (22-Albert Meyong Ze 34), 9-Samuel Eto’o.
Ivory Coast: 1-Jean-Jacques Tizie; 21-Emmanuel Eboue (13-Marc Zoro 115), 4-Kolo Toure, 6-Blaise Kouassi, 3-Arthur Boka; 2-Kanga Akale (22-Romaric
N’Dri 98), 19-Yaya Toure (14-Bakary Kone 88), 5-Didier Zokora,
7-Emerse Fae; 9-Arouna Kone, 11-Didier Drogba ©.
Penalties shoot-out:
Cameroon Ivory Coast
Eto’o scored Drogba scored
Geremi scored Toure scored
Atouba scored B Kone scored
Ngom Kome scored Fae scored
Meyong Ze scored Kone scored
Makoun scored Kouassi scored
Song scored N’Dri scored
Saidou scored Boka scored
Douala scored Zokora scored
Bikey scored Zoro scored
Souleymanou scored Tizie scored
Eto’o missed Drogba scored
(11) (12)
Other AFCON fixtures on 4 February
2002 Quarter-finals: Cameroon 1-0 Egypt
2002 Quarter- finals: Senegal 2-0 DR Congo
2006 Quarter-finals: Nigeria 1-1 Tunisia AET
(6) (5)
2008 Quarter-finals: Egypt 2-1 Angola
2008 Quarter-finals: Tunisia 2-3 Cameroon AET
2012 Quarter-finals: Zambia 3-0 Sudan
2012 Quarter-finals: Ivory Coast 3-0 Equatorial Guinea
2015 Semi-finals: DR Congo 1-3 Ivory Coast
2017 Third Place Play-off: Burkina Faso 1-0 Ghana
By: George ‘Alan Green’ Mahamah
