Minnows Comoros stole the hearts of the football world on Monday evening, courtesy of the nation’s display en route to a last-16 exit from the Africa Cup of Nations.

The knockout rounds of African football’s premiere international tournament resumed on Monday, with Gambia’s shock win over Guinea having been followed by the aforementioned Comoros going head to head with heavyweights Cameroon.

A straightforward victory for the latter was widely predicted ahead of kick-off, with the uphill battle facing Comoros having been added to ever further by the fact that defender Chaker Alhadhur was forced to start in goal.

This came with all three of the country’s shot-stoppers, owing to a combination of Covid-19 and injury, having been absent.

In turn, when Jimmy Abdou was given his marching orders inside seven minutes on the back of a lengthy VAR check, Cameroon going on to run riot began to look a real possibility:

And the deadlock was eventually broken just inside the half-hour mark, when Karl Toko Ekambi slotted home from close range:

Comoros, however, simply refused to lie down and accept defeat.

Central to the heroic efforts on the part of Younes Zerdouk’s men came the showing of aforementioned stand-in goalkeeper Alhadhur, who, amongst a highlight reel all of his own, went viral across social media owing to the following double stop:

Vincent Aboubakar did eventually go on to make it two for Cameroon 20 minutes from time, but the standout moment of not only the evening, but perhaps the AFCON as a whole, was yet to come.

Just inside the closing ten minutes of action, Youssouf M’Changama stood over a free-kick 30 yards from goal, with a strike at Andre Onana’s net, for obvious reasons, having looked frankly out of the question.

M’Changama, though, had other ideas, eventually unleashing a staggering knuckleball effort into the near top corner, for a genuine Puskas contender:

Cameroon, ultimately, hung on, but it is the efforts of Comoros which piqued the attentions of viewers worldwide, and secured the football minnows a host of new supporters in the process.

Stampede kills six

On a considerably more sour note when it comes to Monday’s clash in Yaounde, it has been confirmed that as many as six people were killed outside the Paul Biya Stadium post-match.

This comes owing to a stampede, the origins of which remain unclear at present.

At least 40 people are also understood to have been injured, marking a tragic incident amidst what has been an otherwise wonderful tournament to date.

 

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