Cameroonian soccer star, Samuel Eto’o Fils has said that despite the painful defeat of his side by the defending champions Egypt in the “Group C” opening match on Tuesday, he was sure his team would survive the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

The FC Barcelona player said “take it from me we will surely beat Zambia and Sudan to qualify for the quarter-finals”.

Eto’o Fils, who was speaking at a post-match press conference at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Tuesday night, attributed his team’s defeat to the fact that they did not have enough time to play together.

He said in the 2006 competition in Egypt, Cameroon lost their match at the quarter-finals but this time round, they would make sure that they improved on their performance to make an impact on the tournament.

The Cameroonian national coach, Otto Pfister described the match as a great game and that his team did its best.

In an answer as to what went wrong, ‘Papa Pfister’ as he is popularly called by Ghanaian soccer fans, said he did not know but assured that Cameroon would do well in their subsequent matches.

Egyptian star, Abdalla Mohammed Zidan, who was crown the MTN Man-of-the- Match, attributed his side’s victory to team work and noted that the team would not relent in its efforts to advance to the next stage of the tournament.

He gave the assurance that the Pharaohs would reach the finals and retain the trophy they have won on five previous occasions.

Source: GNA