Christopher Wooh was the last player to score in an extraordinary finale as Cameroon defeated Gambia 3-2 to save their Africa Cup of Nations campaign on Tuesday, when Ghana and Algeria were both eliminated. (More Football News)
Cameroon, who had been in danger of an early exit, clinched their place in the knockout stage as runner-up in Group C as they scored more goals than Guinea, which lost 2-0 to group winner .
Gambia defender Muhammed Sanneh stunned the Cameroon players in stoppage time when he scored what would have been the fourth goal in eight minutes for 3-3, but﷽ a VAR check showed he used his hand. A dra🔯w would have eliminated both teams.
"There are a lot of surprises this year, but we had confidence in ourselves," said George♛s-Kévin Nkoudou, who struck the cr✃ossbar in the first half for Cameroon.
"You know that things can happen very qu🎐ickly and that's what happened. I've nཧo more words, I don't know what to say. It's incredible."
Gambia had put itself in contention for the last 16 by coming from behind to take a 2-1 lead when Ebrima Colley scored with just five m🍌inutes of normal time remaining.
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Then an own goal two minutes later from James Gomez, who was trying to cut out a cross, drew Cameroon level, and Wooh scored what proved to be winner with a header from a corner in the first minute of stoppage♍ time.
"We just won a final, a great match against a very, very good team who g🐷ave everything, who gave their all. Bravo to them, and congratulations to my teammates who believed in this victory despite everything," Cameroon captain André-Frank Zambo Anguissa said.
Defending champion Senegal finished with a perfect nine points fr🌼om three games, followed by Cameroon and Guinea on four, with Gambia finishing bottom of the group with none despite all the excitement the Scorpions had brought to the tournament.
Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet r♚esigned after the game.
Cameroon counterpart Rigobert Song dropped Manchester Un⛄ited goalkee🌄per André Onana to the bench in favor of Onana's cousin, Fabrice Ondoa. Onana missed Cameroon's first game after playing for United the day before, then produced a shaky performance in its second.
Goals from Abdoulaye Seck and Iliman Ndiaye were enough for Senegal to maintain its perfect sꦉtart to its title defense with another commanding performance in 𒆙Yamoussoukro.
Cameroon's win also eliminated Ghana, which h👍ad been hoping to still somehow finish as one of the four best third-place finishers. That's no l♑onger possible for the Black Stars with just two points.
The Ghana Football Association later fired Chris Hughton as coach. His team missed its chance to progress Monday when it conced🐷ed two goals in stoppage time to draw with Mozambique 2-2.
Mauritania Advance, Knock Algeria Out
Ma♍uritania eliminated two-time champion Algeria by winning their first-ever Africa Cup game to reach the last 16.
Mohamed Dellahi Yali's first-half strike helped Mauritania win 1-0 and left the Desert Foxe😼s contemplating their second straight group-stage exit.
Substitute Pape Ibnou Ba missed a great chance to seal it la🦩te when he struck the crossba🐈r with goal at his mercy, but the Lions of Chinguetti survived 11 minutes of stoppage time to see out their first win in their third participation in the tournament.
"We suffered. We knew that this team had great individual quality (but) we were s🔯olid. We scored from one situation and we fought, we showed great desire, and I'm very proud, very proud of what we did," Mauritania coach Amir Abdou said.
His team's win was enough to finish among the four best third-p🌳lace finishers.
Goals from Mabululu and Zine earned Angola the top spot in Group D with a 2-0 wi꧃n over Burkina Faso. Both teaꦆms had already qualified for the last 16.
