Every time Cameroon have met the host nation in a semi-final, their tournament has ended without a single goal in their favour.
Nigeria beat them 6-0 in 1998 and 5-0 in 2006. Equatorial Guinea completed the sequence with a 2-0 win in 2012.
Three defeats. Thirteen goals conceded. None scored.
On Wednesday, Cameroon face a semi-final against the host nation once again. Morocco await from 21:00 local time at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat.
The hosts are chasing a third consecutive final. Cameroon are trying to reach the last round for the first time since 2016.
Six matches against the hosts and no wins
Cameroon’s problem is not confined to semi-finals.
They have played six matches against the country staging the Africa Cup of Nations and have won none of them: five defeats and a draw, with 17 goals against and one for. That single goal came in a 1-1 draw with Ghana in the 2018 group stage.
Nor have they led at any point in those six matches.
The record does, however, offer one detail that stops the semi-final from looking like a foregone conclusion. Cameroon have won all seven of their Africa Cup of Nations matches against sides from the north of the continent. All were group games and six were settled by at least two goals.
Morocco were once part of that sequence. The only previous meeting between the two at the tournament ended in a 4-1 Cameroon win in 2000, even though the Moroccans scored first.
The semi-final therefore sets two opposing precedents against each other: Cameroon have always lost when they meet the hosts, but they have always won when the opponent comes from North Africa.
Morocco have never lost a semi-final
Morocco reach this round for a third successive edition. The two previous ones went to extra time and penalties, and both ended the same way, with Morocco in the final.
In 2022 they knocked out Nigeria after a 1-1 draw and a shoot-out won 5-4. In 2024 they drew 1-1 with Ghana again before winning 4-2 from the spot.
Nine penalties across the two shoot-outs. Nine goals.
The hosts have still never led in an Africa Cup of Nations semi-final. They had to come from behind on both previous occasions and then lost both finals. Now they can reach a third in a row without ever having gone out before the title match in a knockout tie at the tournament.
Their run has not been flawless either. Morocco kept a clean sheet in all three group games, but South Africa ended that sequence in the quarter-finals. In fact, the Moroccans have conceded at least once in all seven knockout matches they have played in the competition.
Their finishing made up for what they gave away against South Africa. Morocco had only two shots on target and converted both to win 2-1. Sakina Ouzraoui opened the scoring and Hanane Aït El Haj converted the decisive penalty. Aït El Haj has a goal and four assists at this tournament.
Cameroon have already rewritten one record in the quarter-finals
Cameroon arrive in Rabat having brought down an even older barrier.
They had won just once in their previous 13 meetings with Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations. In the quarter-finals they won 1-0 and knocked Nigeria out of the tournament for the first time.
Myriam Maéva Nyadjou scored in the 20th minute. Michaely Bihina protected the lead with nine saves, the goalkeeper’s highest total in her three matches at this tournament.
The timing of the goal fits the Cameroonian pattern too. Four of their five goals in the competition have come inside the first half-hour. Morocco, by contrast, did not lead in either of their two previous semi-finals and needed penalties to settle them.
It will be Cameroon’s eleventh semi-final, but they have won only three of the previous ten. Those wins came in 2004, 2014 and 2016. They have not played a final since.
Experience, then, removes the doubts for neither side. Cameroon know how to reach this round but rarely get past it. Morocco have always won here, though never inside 90 minutes.
Cameroon’s record against host nations reads 13-0. Their record against North Africa reads seven wins from seven. Morocco, for their part, have never lost a semi-final and have never scored first in one either.
From 21:00, one of those stories will stop being intact.
