Battle for bronze! Cameroon, Burkina Faso face off in AFCON third place play-off
Hosts Cameroon and Burkina Faso will face off this Saturday in a battle for bronze in the 33rd edition of Africa Cup of Nations.
This is the fourth AFCON meeting between the Stallions of Burkina Faso and the Indomitable Lions with the Cameroonians unbeaten in the three previous games (W2 D1), including a 2-1 win in this year’s group stage.
Burkina Faso have taken their place in the third-place play-off in each of their last two AFCON tournaments (2017 and 2022), winning 1-0 against Ghana in 2017 to finish in third place that year.
Their other third-place play-off was in 1998, drawing 4-4 before losing 4-1 on penalties to DR Congo.
Cameroon are participating in their third AFCON third-place play-off , winning 5-2 against DR Congo in 1972 as a host nation and losing 2-1 to Nigeria in 1992.
Burkina Faso have scored exactly one goal in all six AFCON matches this year, with six different players finding the net each time.
The last team to have seven different scorers in a single AFCON was Ghana in 2015.
On three of the last five occasions the host nation has participated in the AFCON third-place play-off, the games have gone to penalties, with the hosts losing on pens each time: Morocco vs Algeria in 1988 (1-1, lost 4-3 on pens), Burkina Faso vs DR Congo in 1998 (4-4, lost 4-1) and Equatorial Guinea vs DR Congo in 2015 (0-0, lost 4-2 on pens).
