African giants Cameroon and Ghana meet in the second AFCON 2017 semi-final on Thursday.

Cameroon qualified by virtue of a close second place behind Burkina Faso in Group A. They played to a 1-1 draw with Burkina Faso first up and then managed to beat Guinea-Bissau 2-1 before drawing 0-0 with hosts Gabon. Their quarter-final against Senegal finished 0-0 after extra time but they managed to win it on penalties to get through to the last four.

Ghana also qualified 2nd in their group finishing just behind Egypt who beat them 1-0 in their final group match. They had already secured qualification by that stage though thanks to a 1-0 victory over Uganda first up and another 1-0 victory over Mali. They faced the DR Congo in the quarter-finals and managed to beat them 2-1 with all 3 goals coming in the second half.

Cameroon won the last meeting between these sides 1-0 in 2008 and prior to that they played to two draws.

It’s in Ghana’s nature to attack, and their stilted progress in the Group Stage came as a result of the approach imposed upon them: they’re traditionally one of the higher scoring teams at any AFCON.

Asamaoh Gyan is likely to return for Ghana, and with Andre Ayew to play behind him, Jordan Ayew likely to keep his place, and Christian Atsu’s pace sure to cause of problem from out wide.

Cameroon so nearly went out against Gabon in their last Group game, but then they deserved to go through against Senegal after they looked the more threatening side throughout a pretty poor contest. They have some quality in the shape of Benjy Moukandjo and Vincent Aboubakar.

Head to head
This will be the teams’ 8th meeting with Ghana having a superior head to head with 3 wins whilst having lost just once. 3 games have ended as stalemates.