Kick-off: 1600, 13/01/2022
Stadium: Olembe Stadium
TV: Sky Sports
Cameroon survived a scare to win their Africa Cup of Nations opener and the hosts can build on that by beating Ethiopia in Group A.
The Walias began as outsiders to qualify from this pool and have an even bigger mountain to climb after kicking off with a defeat.
We like 4.33 for the Indomitable Lions to prevail 2-0 for our first Cameroon vs Ethiopia prediction.
Cameroon Odds
Cameroon have had to wait three years to host this tournament, with the 2019 edition switched to Egypt and Covid delaying the current event by 12 months.
Burkina Faso threatened to spoil the opening party when Gustavo Sangare struck with a 24th-minute volley after the Stallions had already hit the bar and had a header cleared off the line.
However, the Indomitable Lions roared back to lead 2-1 at the break thanks to a couple of penalties converted by captain Vincent Aboubakar.
Ajax keeper Andre Onana made amends for a sloppy first period with a fine second-half save before Aboubakar was denied a hat-trick by VAR on a tight offside call.
The home fans eventually left Olembe Stadium happy and relieved to come through an eventful encounter, though.
Aboubakar should be full of confidence after twice sending the keeper the wrong way with his spot-kicks and threatening throughout the latter stages.
The 29-year-old talisman now has 27 international goals and is a worthy favourite at 3.8 to break the deadlock again here in the Cameroon vs Ethiopia odds.
For those eyeing a bit more value, though, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa appeals at 12.0 for the same bet or 5.5 to net at any time.
The Napoli midfielder went close from the edge of the area on Sunday and should get more chances to shoot from that range if Ethiopia sit back and defend deep, as expected.
Ethiopia Odds
Ethiopia started out with a 1-0 loss to Cape Verde which gave us a trio of successful selections in our match preview.
The Walias suffered a major blow early on when defender Yared Bayeh was rather harshly sent off for bringing down Julio Tavares following a VAR review.
Cape Verde twice went close to opening the scoring before Tavares headed in from close range on the stroke of half-time.
Teklemariam Shanko made several second-half saves to keep the score down but doesn’t seem to believe in catching the ball and was far from convincing overall.
Ethiopia only went down 1-0 when visiting Ghana and South Africa in a hard World Cup qualifying group last year, though, so they should avoid a thrashing if keeping 11 men on the field.
Let’s go with 2.85 for them to be just 1-0 behind at the interval here to finish off our Cameroon vs Ethiopia betting tips.
Additional stats
Last result:
CAMEROON 2-1 Burkina Faso – Aboubakar (2)
ETHIOPIA 0-1 Cape Verde
Head-to-head: Cameroon 0-0 Ethiopia
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