Key events
90+1 min We’ll have six added minutes.
90 min Nkoudou takes possession, back to goal, and Diakite hauls him down; free-kick Cameroon, 35 yards out, but when the ball’s headed back across, Kone falls upon it.
88 min BUT HAVE A LOOK! Anguissa darts in behind and to the by-line, Tchmadeu forces across the box, and Ekambi takes a decent first touch, turning and escaping Diakite. As he swivels to shoot, a goal looks certain, but rather than find the corner or the roof, he fires straight at Kone who saves diving to his right.
86 min Like Nigeria, Cameroon will do well to remember that it’s rare the best side in the groups is the side dancing about after the final, but they’ve been absolute nonsense and look like a side that either doesn’t have a plan or has a plan but it’s rubbish.
85 min Another change for Guinea, Bayo, the goalscorer, departing and Kante arriving.
84 min But now Ekambi, who’s barely featured, tees-up Kemen after Nkoudou bundles through Casteletto’s cross, but the shot is poor and flies behind.
83 min I said at half-time that Cameroon had been horrendous; well, they still have, devoid of any cohesion. They send in crosses, and that’s about it.
81 min Since Magri departed, Casteletto has become more involved down the right, seeing another cross kicked clear, and Guinea will now have to defend another as Conte sends a cross behind. The corner comes to nowt.
78 min Casteletto crosses from the right, catches Conte in the follow-through, and that’s the last thing Cameroon wanted because the Guinea man takes the opportunity to waste another couple of minutes.
77 min Cameroon aren’t moving the ball quickly enough nor at they flooding the box, but now Casteletto swings a fine cross to the back stick, where Nkoudou, leaping all over Conte, can’t only tickle a glance wide. That wasn’t a great chance, but it was the best one the champs have created in the last 15 minutes.
75 min Now Cameroon makes changes, Gonzalez and Tchamadeu – of Stoke City – replacing Wooh and Magri.
73 min Cooling time.
72 min Diakite and Kamano play a nice one-two, but Yongwa does really well to slide in and come away with the ball.
71 min Cameroon don’t have loads on the bench, but I’m surprised we’ve not seen a change because they’re playing 10 men and not dominating.
69 min Again, Cameroon move down the right, and Wooh charges forward from defence, but Diakite clears behind and the corner comes to nowt, Yongway sticking a poor cross behind when the ball ends up with him.
68 min What do we make of Ondoa’s mauve and lilac outfit? I can’t make up my mind.
67 min Ekambi, who’s been quiet, pumps into the box, and when the ball’s cleared, Ntcham leathers a shot over the top.
65 min Cameroon have gone quiet again. Guinea are managing the game well.
63 min Ondoa punches the free-kick clear, and Diakhaby is booked for yanking back the breaking Ntcham.
62 min Again, Guinea counter, Diakite reaching the ball before Moukoudi, nicking the ball away from him, and wearing the inevitable scything; Moukoudi is booked.
61 min “In live blogs and match summaries,” says Peter Oh, “I would like to see red cards annotated with descriptors.
For example:
*Clumsy
**Nasty
***Criminal.”
And ****Glorious
60 min Our players enjoy a cooling break.
58 min Magri has been a good outlet this half, and he has a cross deflected behind by Sylla; the corner is nodded out to someone, Kemen, I think, and his low shot almost takes a telling deflection but Diakite does well to step over it as it passes wide.
58 min “Many want to compare Guirassy to another Stuttgart legend, Mario Gomez,” returns Kári Tulinius, “but I think he’s different, less of a poacher. Gomez’s defining quality was that he’d jump into a meat-grinder if he thought there’d be a goal on the other side of it, but Guirassy has more finesse to his game. He’s very good at holding up the ball and bringing others into play, often unselfishly. His runs routinely surprise opposition defenders, and he can create pockets of space in crowded penalty boxes. So I’d say he’s an all-round number nine, with my only caveats being that he does tend to get injured, and confidence seems to affect him a lot.”
Ahahaha, imagine the state of him after 10 minutes at Old Trafford.
57 min Changes for Guinea: off go Guilavogui and Conte A; Diakite and Conte F replace them.
56 min …and he humps over the bar as if doing so on purpose.
54 min Jeanvier is late on Magri, introducing studs to ankle, and Cameroon have another free-kick, 25 yards out, right of centre. Again, it’ll be N’Koudou with it…
53 min I’d pay good money to watch this scrap.
53 min Cameroon win a free-kick down the left, the position similar to the one from which N’Koudou just crossed for the goal, but this time it’s cleared easily enough.
GOAL! Cameroon 1-1 Guinea (Magri 51)
This time, N’Koudou finds a decent cross, and though there’s no Vincent Janssen waiting for it, the delivery is fantastic, swung in to the back post where Magri is up all over Sylla, diverting his header down and back whence it came into the far side-netting. Cameroon needed that!
50 min The corner comes to nowt and for a second, Guinea have a counter, but Guilavogui’s pass is poor and now Cameroon build again.
49 min There’s a little more purpose about Cameroon now, Magri marauding down the right and crossing, but Sylla slides in to block behind.
48 min Guinea have looked decent on the counter so far and here they come now, Moriba driving through midfield only for Bayo to go too early, rule himself out of a through-pass, and see the move break down.
47 min “I thought that was harsh, as it goes,” writes James Humphries. “Could actually have seen him getting two yellows for each tread, but taken as a whole that looked like a booking-and-a-half at most; certainly ‘seen ‘em given’ territory, but I don’t know that a yellow is a clear and obvious error. Bloody VAR; at least I know who to get behind now, though!”
I know what you mean – it looked clumsy rather than nasty, but much as I’d enjoy the return of the reducer, I don’t mind if treading on someone’s achilles like he did is a strict liability red. Similarly, though, had the ref felt it was accidental, I’d not have minded if he’d stayed on.