Tension mounts ahead of Cameroon–Ivory Coast clash

Confrontations between Ivory Coast and Cameroon have always produced a lot of tension from time memorial. Even though, the lion remains king of the jungle, the elephant has from time to time tried to challenge the authority of the lion in the forest.

History holds that since the first confrontation in February 2, 1970 in Khartoum during the African Nations Cup, things have not been the same. Before that match on paper, Cameroon had no chance against Ivory Coast and its star Poku. From the outset, the Ivorians took a surprised two goals lead and after the break, Poku asked Cameroon to hurry so they could finished the ‘handball’ match they just started.

With just 23 minutes of playing the second half, the festival began. Kum opened the scoring in the 67th minute after displacing the entire Ivorian defense.

Three minutes later, Ndoga scored a hat-trick. Many believe that things were going to stop there but at the 76th minute, cornered behind the corner, the Ivorian will crack as Kum carries the thrust and allows Cameroon to snatch an unexpected 3-2 victory.

The story was a sad one again for Ivory Coast 18 years later when Cameroon netted two goals to beat them in the quarter finals of the 1984 AFCON.

During the 1986 AFCON; it was the lions that beat Ivory Coast in a highly contested match that Cameroon dominated from the beginning to the end.

January 24, 1992 in Dakar Senegal during the Semifinal of CAN, Ivory Coast made nonsense of the Cameroon team beating them through penalty shoot out to advance to the semifinals.

Eight years in Accra again, it was Cameroon and Ivory Coast who faced each other in the group stage when on January 28, 2000, the Cameroon team made of young guys from the Olympic Games in Sydney made Ivory Coast to know that a king is always a king. Goals from Kala, Eto’o and Mboma gave Cameroon the victory.

That match, the observation lasted a quarter of an hour. Njitap and Etame Mayer made multiple raids on the right flank of the attack. Patrick Mboma’s one goal gave Cameroon an edge over Ivory Coast on the 25th January 2002 in Bamako Mali. Alioum Boukar served Cameroon and was given the red feather.

September 4, 2005 in Abidjan during the qualifiers of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Indomitable Lions who had shown a pale face at the beginning of the qualifiers of the CAN / World Cup 2006, found the resources to find the place that is theirs in the three groups.

Balance on a 2-2 draw at the 85th minutes, Pierre Achille Webo’s strike sends the Ivorian people to bed as Cameroon began the final turn of the qualification at the top of their pool.

On the 4th of February 2006, Ivory Coast gave Cameroon a bitter pile to swallow when they beat Cameroon on penalty shots in Cairo Egypt 11-12 after a 1-1 draw at full time.

Last September 10 2014 in Yaoundé, the shock of the second day qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations 2015 kept all its promises. The Cameroon team swept the Ivory Coast 4-1 and ideally started its journey in Group D.

The confrontation next Wednesday will be another test for the two teams. Will Cameroon continue to dominate their supremacy over the Ivorians? In eight outings, the lions have won five losing three.