By Etienne Mainimo Mengnjo,
The Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon have qualified for the fourth round qualifiers of the 2020 Olympic Games to take place in Tokyo.
Cameroon beat Cote Ivory Coast 2-1 in Yaounde to seal their next round qualification ticket thanks to a late penalty by Nchout Ajara. In the first leg in Abidjan, both sides separated on a goalless point.
In Yaounde, Cameroon were coming to the game with the backs to the wall while their opponent needed just a goal without conceding any to sail through to the next round.
In order to close the gaps, Cameroon broke the deadlock at in the 26th minutes through Charlene Meyong and helped to consolidate their lead to the end of 45 minutes.
Back from recess, the visiting team, Ivory Coast mounted pressure and within the shortest possible time, Rebecca at the 47th minutes equalised for her team.
As minutes and seconds died down, the struggle for Cameroon to take the lead became a hard knock to crack as the Ivoirians were seemingly happier with the draw. At the 86th minutes, Cameroon obtained a penalty which was beautifully lower into the back of the net by Ajara.
At the sound of the final whistle, the dream of qualifying for their first ever Olympic Games dashed out as Cameroon moved to the last round. Cameroon will therefore play Zambia in the fourth and last round qualifying stage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Zambia thrashed Kenya 3-2.
It was the fourth time Cote d’Ivoire was playing against Cameroon since their first meeting in 2012. History does not favour Cote D’Ivoire as they lost all three previous meetings, including their last 3-2 loss in a World Cup build-up in 2015.
