In Africa or in Europe, Samuel Eto’o keeps scoring. Changing continents made no difference for the prolific FC Barcelona striker, who scored a hat-trick to lead Cameroon to a 3-1 victory over Angola in an African Nations Cup match on Saturday.
Eto’o certainly made the difference in the game, which was evenly balanced until his two second-half goals turned the match in Cameroon’s favour.
Another African star based in Europe, Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, also was a winner. Drogba earned and converted a penalty that gave highly touted Côte d’Ivoire a narrow 1-0 win over Morocco.
In an action-packed final game of the day, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) beat Togo 2-0, with both teams wasting scores of chances.
Côte d’Ivoire joined host Egypt on three points in group A. Egypt beat Libya 3-0 in the opening match of the 16-nation tournament on Friday.
In group B, Cameroon and the DRC both have three points.
Eto’o and Drogba are vying for the honour of becoming Africa’s Player of the Year. The award ceremony is scheduled for February 16.
Round one went to Eto’o, winner of the title the past two years, who scored from a free kick, a header and blistering shot from outside the area.
”It was important to win the first game,” Eto’o said. ”I don’t know what we can do in the whole tournament but on a good day, we can beat any team.”
Eto’o has scored 18 goals for Barcelona in 18 Spanish league games this season.
Of the three teams bound for this year’s World Cup finals in Germany that were in action Saturday, two lost — Angola and Togo.
The Indomitable Lions, who are four-time African champions, are trying to make up for a disappointing World Cup campaign, when they were narrowly edged by Drogba’s Elephants.
Angola’s coach was impressed, both by Eto’o and Cameroon.
”Normally, I speak about the performance of a team, but in this case, we agreed that Eto’o made the big difference,” Luis Oliveira Goncalves said. ”Cameroon showed all of us how strong they are.”
Côte d’Ivoire scored the only goal after 39 minutes of an uneventful game when Drogba converted a penalty he had earned himself. Racing to reach a cross, he was pulled down by Walid Regragui.
Drogba drove the ball inside the right post, past stretched Morocco goalkeeper Tarek Jarmouni.
The Côte d’Ivoire captain left the field in the 65th minute.
”I was a bit tired in this game, so I was happy to get a penalty,” Drogba said. ”I’ll be stronger in the next matches. Nobody likes to be substituted but solidarity with the team always comes first.”
Tresor Mputu scored seconds before half-time and Lomano Lua Lua, the Portsmouth midfielder, added the second for the DRC after the break. — Sapa-AP