The Gambia made history on Monday at the Africa Cup of Nations after qualifying for the quarter-finals of the competition and setting up a clash with the hosts. The West African nation finished second in Group, which had Mali, Tunisia and Mauritania, but after drawing Guinea in the R16, they showed no respect for pedigree.

Musa Barrow scored his second goal of the competition in the 70th minute to seal a historic victory and lead the side to the quarter-finals of the competition. The Italy based player found his way through Guinean players before cooly slotting past the goalkeeper.

The Gambia will now play against Cameroon, who beat another debutant, Comoros 2-0, in a keenly-contested game at the Olembe Stadium. Cameroon has been the highest scorers so far in the tournament. They faced a COVID-19 ravaged Comoros side who were without any of the official goalkeepers due to Covid infections and injuries.

However, Comoros never backed down and gave it their best until they went down to 10 men after one of their players were sent off. Comoros were reduced to ten men after just seven minutes after Nadjim Abdou’s red.

Goals from Karl Toko Ekambi and Vincent Aboubakar gave the Indomitable Lions a 2-1 win. Ekambi has three goals, while Vincent Abubakar has six goals from four matches.

Youssouf M’Changama scored a stunning free-kick, and Chaker Alhadhur, normally a left-back, produced a brilliant performance as a stand-in goalkeeper

Hosts Cameroon progress and will now face The Gambia in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Also, Tunisia will face Burkina Faso after both sides respectively knocked out Nigeria and Gabon on Sunday in the first round of sixteen matches played. On Tuesday, it will be Senegal vs. Cape Verde and Morocco vs. Malawi.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu