AFCON: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia in must-win encounter at Kouekong Stadium
Burkina Faso and Ethiopia close out their Africa Cup of Nations group-stage journey with a clash at the Kouekong Stadium on Monday.
Burkina Faso can all but secure a place in the last 16 by avoiding defeat, while Ethiopia need to win to stand any chance of making it through.
Burkina Faso bounced back from an opening defeat to Cameroon in style by seeing off the threat of Cape Verde in a 1-0 victory on Thursday.
read also:AFCON: Cameroon in formalty match against Cape Verde
Hassane Bande grabbed the game’s all-important goal in the 39th minute to secure a vital three points for Kamou Malo’s men at the Paul Biya Stadium.
The Stallions are second in Group A as a result, three points adrift of Cameroon – the only team in the group to have won both of their two matches.
Unbeaten in nine of their last 10 games across all competitions, Burkina Faso are playing some of their best football at the moment despite missing some key players.
Next up for the 2013 AFCON finalists is a crunch clash against an opposing side who have lost two of the last three meetings between the teams.
Ethiopia were thrashed 4-1 by host nation Cameroon in their second group-stage fixture on Thursday in Yaounde.
Wubetu Abate’s men made a dream start to the contest, taking the lead in the fourth minute through Dawa Hotessa before four unanswered goals split evenly between Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko Ekambi turned the game on its head.
The Walia Ibex are yet to pick up a point so far and are rooted to the bottom of their group standings heading into matchday three.
With a fifth straight first-round exit on the horizon, the east Africans are now in the last chance saloon to salvage their AFCON campaign.
read also:AFCON: Cameroon in formalty match against Cape Verde
Bertrand Traore missed Burkina Faso’s last outing having returned a positive COVID-19 test which is set to see the Aston Villa man miss Monday’s game as well.
Traore’s replacement Hassane Bande made the most of a rare spot in the XI by scoring the decisive goal and will be looking to come up trumps once again.
Dawa Hotessa was on the score sheet in his first start of the tournament and the forward is expected to retain his spot in the starting XI at the expense of Getaneh Kebede.
Yared Baye is eligible to feature in this one having served his one-game suspension courtesy of a sending-off in the defeat to Cape Verde.