France-Cameroon, Kameni joins the fray

He was called up to replace André Onana shelved aside for disciplinary reasons.

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon continue fine-tuning their training in Nantes-France ahead of the upcoming friendly against France on May 30 and the qualification match for the 2017 AFCON against Mauritania on June 3.

After regrouping in Nantes on Sunday, the lions had their first training session yesterday at the Moulin Boisseau stadium in the morning before granting a press conference later in the afternoon in their tentative den in Westotel.

Today there will be just one training session in the afternoon which will be open to the press and public, just as the first fifteen minutes of tomorrow’s training in the morning. In the afternoon there will be a one on one with pressmen upon request from media organs. On Friday there will be only one training session in the morning and the pre-match press conference will take place on Sunday evening.

The match proper will take place at the Stade La Beaujoire in Nantes on Monday. While it will be a match of prestige for France which is warming up for the European Nations Cup that they will be hosting as from June 12. It will be the third confrontation between the two sides. The first confrontation between the two countries was in October 2000 when both sides separated on a one-all tie with a memorable bicycle shot from the ace striker Patrick Mboma. The second confrontation was during the confederations cup final which Cameroon lost to France 0-1after the spirit of the lions was dampened by the death of Marc Vivien Foe a few days before.

There will be no respite for the lions as they travel to Mauritania after the encounter to face the local side in an encounter counting for the 5th day of play of the qualifying series for the 2017 AFCON in Nouakchott. According to team coach, Hugo Broos, the match against Mauritania is of utmost importance to the Lions since Cameroon doesn’t want to be absent from the continental football rendezvous in neighboring Gabon though he said Cameroon will not be playing against France for mere figuration.

Meanwhile there have been some slight modifications on the initial list of players published by Hugo Broos to defend the national colours in the two matches. After sustaining an injury on the last day of play of the French league one, Benjamin Moukandjo was replaced by Serges Etame Mbilla who plays for Turkish club side Antalyaspor.

Whereas Andre Onana was shelved aside for disciplinary reasons and replaced by veteran goalkeeper, Idriss Carlos Kameni. According to the team press officer, Kameni will be joining the rest of the squad today.