Cameroon coach Rigobert Song has blamed the team’s 1-1 Africa Cup of Nations draw against Guinea on a difficult start by the Indomitable Lions in the fixture at the Charles Konan Banny Stadium on Monday.

Guinea took an early lead through Mohamed Bayo, who was given all the space and time in the world and gleefully pounced on a loose ball inside the penalty box beyond the reach of Fabrice Ondoa and took the lead against the five-times champions Cameroon.

Guinea captain Francois Kamano was shown the marching orders after a clumsy foul on Cameroonian midfielder Olivier Ntcham inside the added-on time in the first half and the Indomitable Lions took advantage of the numerical disadvantage of the Guineans in the second half and got the equalizer six minutes into the second half following Frank Magri’s show of superb aerial ability to pounce onto a free kick to render the game 1-1.

Read Also: AFCON 2023: Angola were better side in second half than Algeria – Goncalves

“The start of the match was difficult for us, especially in the first 30 minutes. You know how it has been in the start of this tournament; it has always been difficult. We saw how some teams started this tournament,” said Song after the game as quoted by CAFOnline.

“We controlled the flow of the match, but we were not able to score the second goal of the match to take the victory, I hope to do it in the next match.”

He further promised to rectify mistakes before their next fixture by saying: “We all saw the match, there is a positive part. We will correct the mistakes, and in the next four days, the players will know their mission. For my part, I will work with my assistants on the technical team to correct the problems we encountered.”