AFCON 2015

Clinton N'jie

Lions begin campaign with victory
Cameroon made a perfect start to life without their retired talisman Samuel Eto'o with a workman-like 2-0 victory over an out-of-sorts DR Congo side in Lubumbashi on Saturday.
    Clinton N'jie, the France-based striker, opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before Vincent Aboubakar, who plays for FC Porto in Portugal, doubled the advantage with eight minutes remaining.
    Despite winning back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations titles in 2000 and 2002, the indomitable Lions have failed to qualify for the past two tournaments.

    Sterner tests lie ahead, with Ivory Coast also in this group, but after a rotten World Cup campaign, this win will give Volke Finke's team plenty of confidence.
    The Congolese are looking to secure a second straight appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations after crashing out of the group stage in South Africa in 2013.
    But they were severely handicapped after 21 minutes when Captain Youssouf Mulumbu was taken off with a hamstring injury.
    Frenchman Christian Guorcuff marked his first competitive game in charge of Algeria with a 2-1 win over Ethiopia in Addis Ababa on Saturday.
Guorcuff took over from Vahid Halilhodzic, the man who led the Desert Foxes to the knock-out stages of the World Cup, and must have been pleased with what he saw on the pitch.
    Hillel Soudani and Yasin Brahimi struck either side of half-time to ruin Portuguese coach Mariano Barreto's first competitive as Ethiopia's head coach.
    Saladin Said gave the local fans something to shout about when he reduced the deficit from the penalty spot deep in stoppage time.
The Walya Antelopes started brightly and threatened to score on at least two occasions in the opening 10 minutes.
    But once the North Africans found their rhythm, the home side struggled to cope.
    Zambia and Mozambique drew 0-0 in a southern African derby that almost put the crowd to sleep at the Levy Mwanawasa stadium in Ndola.
    The Mambas went into the match with the weight of history on their shoulders - in 13 previous clashes against Chipolopolo, they had lost 11 times and drawn the other two.
    This probably explains why they chose to 'park the bus' and do nothing else in 90 tedious minutes.
    The 2012 African champions huffed and puffed throughout but lacked bite and creativity upfront.
    Chipolopolo are chasing a sixth successive appearance at the flagship tournament of African football and 17th qualification overall.
    There were eleven qualifiers in total on Saturday.
    Defending Champions Nigeria stumbled at home losing 2-3 to Congo-Brazzaville in Calabar.