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Monday, 15 October 2012

Africa Cup of Nations: Cape Verde and Ethiopia qualify

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o

There were more shocks on the second day of the second-leg final-round ties of 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifiers on Sunday.
Seven ties were concluded on Saturday and, among the eight to be played on Sunday, Cameroon suffered a mighty upset when they lost to Cape Verde, who qualified for the tournament for the first time.
Elsewhere, Ethiopia produced an excellent comeback to go through along with Angola and Niger.
The tiny Cape Verde Islands knocked out former World Cup quarter-finalists Cameroon to pull off one of the biggest shocks in the competition's history, despite defeat in Yaounde.
Cape Verde - a country with a population of about 500,000 - had won the first tie 2-0 and they strengthened their position after only 22 minutes of the return game when Portuguese-based striker Heldon scored with a free-kick.
Cameroon were level minutes later through Achille Emana but still needed three more goals to overturn the aggregate deficit - a task that seemed beyond their dispirited performance.
The hosts got their second goal four minutes into stoppage time when 16-year-old substitute Fabrice Olinga came on to convert a Samuel Eto'o cross.
The return of four-time African Footballer of the Year Eto'o and a change of coach ahead of the second leg did little to resurrect Cameroon's fortunes.
They now miss out on the Nations Cup for a second successive tournament, suggesting the era of a regular role as one of African football's superpowers is at an end.
Cape Verde toyed with their much-vaunted hosts at times, passing the ball around at pedestrian pace in the second half to waste time.

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