Ivory Coast 0-1 Cameroon: Nsongo wins it for the Indomitable Lions
Ivory Coast 0-1 Cameroon: Bil Nsongo scored two minutes into the second half as the Indomitable Lions won a heavyweight African friendly in Abidjan.
Ivory Coast 0-1 Cameroon went the way of the Indomitable Lions in Abidjan, as Bil Nsongo’s early second-half goal settled a friendly between two of African football’s heavyweights.
Main photo: Alex Sirac / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The match at the Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara revived one of the continent’s great rivalries, a fixture that once pitted Didier Drogba against Samuel Eto’o. This time the Elephants had more of the ball but Cameroon had the cutting edge.
Ivory Coast 0-1 Cameroon: Nsongo strikes after the break
Ivory Coast dominated possession in a goalless first half but could not turn pressure into clear chances. They made three changes at the interval, and within two minutes they were behind.
Arthur Avom supplied the pass and Nsongo finished on 47 minutes. The hosts threw on fresh legs, using eight substitutes in all, and pushed hard late on, but Cameroon’s back line held firm through five minutes of stoppage time.
Manchester United forward Bryan Mbeumo started for Cameroon before being replaced with nine minutes left.
Match facts
| Ivory Coast | Cameroon | |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | 0 | 1 |
| Half-time | 0 | 0 |
| Scorer | – | Nsongo 47′ |
| Assist | – | Avom |
| Substitutions | 8 | 6 |
| Venue | Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara, Abidjan | |
Big friendlies during AFCON qualifying window
Not every African side has spent this window on friendlies. Ghana are rebuilding in the AFCON 2027 qualifiers, as covered in our report on Carlos Queiroz’s exit from Ghana, while our South Africa v Guinea preview looked at Pitso Mosimane’s return to Bafana Bafana.
Egypt, meanwhile, made headlines when Mohamed Salah was left out of their trip to South Sudan over concerns about the artificial pitch.
For Ivory Coast, it is a home defeat to learn from after a strong summer on the world stage. Our sister site DGBN covered how Amad’s last-minute winner saw Ivory Coast past Ecuador at the World Cup.
