Douala, March 26 (BNA): Algeria’s Islam Slimani scored a 1-0 away win over Cameroon in the first leg of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Douala on Friday, taking a giant step towards qualifying for this year’s Qatar finals.
The tall striker raised his goal tally in the African qualifiers to eight with a powerful free kick header in the 40th minute for the winner of a critical match at Jaboma Stadium, Reuters reports.
Algeria hosts the return leg in Blida on Tuesday, and is well placed to qualify for its fifth World Cup appearance.
Friday’s victory marks Algeria’s successful return to Douala, which failed miserably in the port city in January to defend its Africa Cup of Nations title, returning home early after an embarrassing defeat to tiny Equatorial Guinea.
But coach Djamel Belmadi refused to press the panic button and kept faith in his team when he returned to Cameroon with a much better result.
Soleimani rose above the defense to head the only goal as goalkeeper Andre Onana pushed the ball up to the underside of the crossbar but was unable to prevent it from shooting into the net.
Al-Suleimani had an early opportunity to put Algeria ahead, but his shot in the 13th minute after a separation after a defensive error was saved by Onana.
Cameroon, with former captain Rigobert Song emerging as coach, were unable to smash Algeria’s resolute defense and lost captain Vincent Aboubacar, the Nations Cup’s top scorer, to injury at the end of the first half.
Their best chance came late in the game when Karl Toko Ekambi was in goal but was saved by Algeria goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi.
The match was stopped six minutes early in the second half, as the lights went out in the new stadium, but soon the match was restarted.
This meant that there were 11 minutes of extra time, as Cameroon ferociously tried to attack but Algeria put all their players behind the ball while they held out for victory.