Yaounde, Jan. 23 (BNA): Burkina Faso beat Gabon on penalties to reach the quarter-finals in their first African Cup of Nations knockout match on Sunday.
Substitute Ismael Ouedraogo hit the decisive penalty kick and Burkina Faso won on penalties 7-6 to finally overpower Gabon’s brave effort, the Associated Press reports.
Burkina Faso led 1-0, and a Gabon man was sent off in the 67th minute. But Gabon, made up of 10, equalized in stoppage time with an own goal by Burkina Faso midfielder Adama Guerra to send the game into overtime. He remained 1-1 during extra time in the last 16.
Burkina Faso had two chances to win on penalties after Gabon players missed. But the Burkina Faso players rose and failed as well.
Ouédraogo’s winning penalty kick was the eighteenth from the penalty shootout. He scored a goal after Lloyd’s Balloon of Gabon hit the post to lose his team for the third and final time.
Burkina Faso were leading 1-0 in regular time through a first-half goal by captain Bertrand Traore when Gabon defender Sydney Obesa was sent off just over 20 minutes ago to earn a second yellow card.
Obesa blatantly pulled the Burkina Faso striker by his shirt and off the ball as the Burkina Faso side slid forward.
It was a miserable day for Obesa, who picked up his first yellow card when he missed an early penalty with a push on Burkina Faso’s Issa Kabore at the edge of the area.
Traore missed this penalty early in the match, but made up for it after 10 minutes when he ran on a through ball and hit his shot under Gabon goalkeeper Jean-Noel Amonomy, who ran out.
Chasing the match when trailing 1-0, Gabon’s ten men survived dangerously after Obesa walked in but lifted themselves for a final goal from a corner kick in the first minute of stoppage time and the ball rebounded from Guerra to hit his net. To take it to the extra time.
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