Lions ready for today's showdown

They held their last training session on January 19.

The Indomitable Lions are now ready for the confrontation with Eagles of Mali in the first outing at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

The Lions held their second and last training session yesterday at the Estadio La Paz in Malabo.

The training session began with some warm up and stretching exercise then the squad was separated into two for a lion-lion confrontation within a reduced space that is half of the field with little goalposts and no goalkeeper.

The press was sent out when they entered the tactical phase of the training for fear of exposing their strategy to the opponent. The Malians who have been trailing Cameroon since Gabon are lodged in the same hotel as the Lions. Some suspect it is to keep a close watch over Cameroon who they seem to dread so much.

As a sign of harmony and conviviality within the group, the players play with each other as little boys throwing occasional jibes at each other during the training session but at the same time showing seriousness with the training.

In the evening yesterday at 7 pm, there was the traditional reconnaissance visit to the Estadio Banapa of Malabo where the confrontation with Mali shall take place today. The Lions were the first to visit the stadium, followed by the \Malians. Both sides granted a pre-match press conference at the end of the reconnaissance visit to the Banapa stadium.

It is worthy to mention that the Lions were treated to a hectic welcome upon their arrival in Malabo on Saturday. They were received by boisterous crowd of Cameroonian at the airport amidst singing and beating of drums.

The supporters of the Lions even created a traffic jam on the alley leading to Sofitel le president hotel in Malabo where they took up residence. Each time, the Lions are going or coming back from training, they arouse the curiosity of onlookers who throng the streets to have a glimpse of the Lions causing difficulties for the police escort that usually accompanies them.