The Cameroon women’s U20 football team recorded her first ever point at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup after staging a remarkable comeback to grab a draw against hard fighting Mexico. Naomi Eto was the hero of the day, scoring brace late in the game to help the debutant snatch a valuable point in Colombia on Saturday.
Barely two minutes into the fiery contest at Estadio Nemesio Camacho, Bogota, the Mexican girls took the lead when Paola Garcia powered in a header from an inch-perfect cross by Montserrat Saldivar. Cameroon immediately pushed for an equalizer, hitting the post twice within four minutes as Atcha Toko Njoya and Eto each struck the woodwork.
However, hard luck wouldn’t play a part in Mexico sojourn as Garcia and Saldivar combined again to double the lead, with Garcia setting up Saldivar, who calmly finished past the Cameroon goalkeeper in the 40th minute.
Cameroon in their first ever U-20 Women’s World Cup match came out strong in the second half and cut the deficit to 2-1 when 19-year Nina Ngueleu turned provider for Captain Eto who rounded Mexico’s goalkeeper Renatta Cota and dribbled the ball over the line in the 52nd minute. That was Cameroon first ever goal at the mundial.With momentum on their side, Cameroon capitalized further as Eto powered in a header in the 85th minute off Mana Lamine’s assist to complete the comeback and secure a 2-2 draw for the U-20 Lionesses.
Speaking after the game, Cameroon coach Abdoussalami Hassan Balla said “there’s a lot of satisfaction. It was really complicated against this Mexican team. We came back quickly in the second half, but the start of the game was complicated. We conceded two goals, both of which we gave away, they were real gifts. Then we got going in the second half. The girls tried to put the ball on the ground to try and kill off the Mexican team. We’re not spitting on one point, it’s satisfying.”
The player of match award winner, Eto in her reaction said “we didn’t really know how Mexico played, and we went 2-0 down… But God was with us in our game and we were able to get back on level terms. We’re going to stay focused, we’re going to prepare in training. We’re going to analyse our shortcomings so that we don’t repeat them in our next match.”
“What I talked to my team after the game is that we won a point, the reality is that it is a very difficult group, no one was going to give us anything. We have to continue like this, we have a great team, we did a great process and now we must ratify it.” Mexico Coach Ana Galindo stated.
Cameroon will face Colombia on Tuesday in their second match of the Women’s U20 World Cup. Other African representatives will also be in action as another debutant Morocco will battle against South American side Paraguay in Cali while two-time runners up, Nigeria is scheduled to play against Korea Republic on Sunday. In the same vein, another West African team Ghana will square up against Austria in their first group game on Monday in Bogota.
