November 13, (THEWILL) – Cameroon beat 10-man Malawi 4-0 in Johannesburg on Saturday, with goals from captain Vincent Aboubakar and Franck Zambo Anguissa in the first half and a late brace from Christian Bassogog keeping the Indomitable Lions’ World Cup ambitions alive.
They now have 12 points and are in first place in Group D, pending the outcome of Ivory Coast’s match against Mozambique later Saturday. The Ivorians trail by two points.
Cameroon scored from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute against Malawi after John Banda handled Aboubakar’s goal-bound attempt on the line.
Banda was sent off for his blunder, and the Cameroonian captain stepped up to the spot and calmly converted the penalty.
They had come close earlier when Nicolas Ngamaleu’s curling freekick from 25 yards sailed inches over the bar but they became all the more dominant, especially when they had a numerical advantage.
Anguissa scored a spectacular goal four minutes before halftime to increase their lead. The midfielder set himself up with his first touch after a quick start to a corner, then volleyed into the bottom right corner with his second.
Cameroon rightly led 2-0 at halftime.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Malawi put up a good fight in the second half, but they could not recover the two goals.
Their goal drought was exacerbated when substitute Christian Bassogog scored twice in the space of two minutes. In the 85th and 87th minutes, the striker who had replaced Ngamaleu scored.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
