Topics: AFCON 2021, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Vincent Aboubakar
The hosts grabbed a historic win to finish the tournament as second runners-up at the expense of Burkina Faso

Cameroon pulled off a historic comeback on Saturday night to secure a third place finish at the 2021 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations at the expense of Burkina Faso in Yaounde. The host nation extraordinarily fought back from three goals down to force the play-off game into penalty shootout which they subsequently won.

The scoreline in the first half was barely reflective of what ensued on the pitch. Despite Cameroon dominating the proceeding, it was Burkina Faso who broke the deadlock through Steeve Yago with another one of their breakaway goals in the 24th minute. With two minutes left to the break, a bizarre own-goal by Andre Onana doubled the Stallions' advantage to further complicate his side's cause.

It almost looked certain that Burkina Faso will be going home with the bronze medal after they got their third goal of the night through Djibril Ouattara. However, what ensued in the final 20 minutes was one for the history books with Cameroon turning the game right back in their favor.

It started with Stephane Bahoken reducing the goal deficit to just two in the 71st minute before substitute Vincent Aboubakar set them on course for a thrilling final five minutes by scoring the Indomitable Lions' second of the night. A goalkeeping error in the 87th minute then handed the competition's top-goalscorer to get the equaliser which was also his record-equalling eighth goal of the tournament. The former Beskitas striker joined Ndaye Mulamba (9, 1974) and Laurent Pokou (8, 1970) as the only three players to score eight or more goals at a single AFCON tournament.

The game proceeded directly to the penalty shootout and Ibrahim Blati Toure's saved kick proved to be the decider as Cameroon secured the historic berth.