There is a certain cruelty in football's narrative arcs. Hugo Broos, the Belgian who masterminded Cameroon's improbable AFCON triumph in 2017, sat in the Agdal Medina Stadium press room on Saturday night promising he would show his former employers "no mercy." Twenty-four hours later, he was answering questions about elimination.
Cameroon beat South Africa 2-1. The scoreline flatters the losers.
The build-up told the story
Broos had spent the previous 48 hours complaining. About the 45-minute bus rides to training. About being housed far from Rabat's center. About CAF allowing both teams to train at Morocco's base camp — "our next opponent," he noted darkly, already looking past the present.
"In the Ivory Coast and in Gabon, every second of the tournament you felt that you were in a tournament. The people were waving, there were flags. Here you see nothing. There is no vibe," he had grumbled earlier in the competition.
Perhaps the vibe found him in the end.
A defender opens the wound
Junior Tchamadeu is 21 years old and plays for Stoke City in the Championship. He was born in London, chose Cameroon, and has spent this tournament proving that choice correct. His 31st-minute goal — arriving from a corner routine, slotted past an exposed Ronwen Williams — broke the deadlock and set the tone.
It was Tchamadeu's second goal of the tournament, after his equalizer against holders Ivory Coast in the group stage. The right-back has scored more times at this AFCON than in his entire Championship season. Some players simply find different dimensions when they pull on the national jersey.
Broos, watching from the technical area, must have recognized the pattern. Cameroon winning through set-piece efficiency. Cameroon grinding out results with young, fearless players. It was his blueprint, now turned against him.
Kofane delivers the knockout blow
If Tchamadeu's goal was the jab, Christian Kofane's was the uppercut.
The 19-year-old Bundesliga striker had only joined Cameroon's camp reluctantly. He declined two previous call-ups, preferring to focus on his breakthrough season at Bayer Leverkusen. It took an agreement between FECAFOOT and the German club to get him on the plane to Morocco.
Ninety seconds into the second half, he justified every negotiation. Mahamadou Nagida found him in the box, and Kofane's header left Williams with no chance. At 19 years and 161 days, he became the youngest scorer of this AFCON edition.
Samuel Eto'o, the FECAFOOT president who pushed for Kofane's inclusion against the wishes of some, was watching from the stands. The Cameroonian legend knows something about young strikers announcing themselves on the continental stage — he scored his first AFCON goal at 18, also in his second appearance.
History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes in strange ways.
Bafana Bafana's late defiance
At 2-0 down, South Africa could have collapsed. They didn't. Credit where it belongs: this Bafana Bafana generation has steel.
Evidence Makgopa, the Orlando Pirates striker whose agent has been openly shopping him to European clubs, pulled one back in the 87th minute. Suddenly, five minutes of stoppage time felt like an eternity.
But Cameroon held. Devis Epassy, who had earlier denied Samukelo Kabini with a superb save, organized his defense with the calm of a man who has seen these situations before. Bryan Mbeumo, the Premier League's newest £70 million man, tracked back like a wingback.
The final whistle brought relief on one side and reflection on the other.
Broos faces the music
"We still had chances even after making it 2-1. In the last minutes they defended very well," Broos admitted afterward. "It's big disappointment not to qualify but I can't be unhappy with the way we played. Cameroon deserved to go through."
Gracious words from a man who had spoken of mercy 24 hours earlier.
This was supposed to be Broos' farewell tour with South Africa. Bafana Bafana have qualified for the 2026 World Cup; he wanted to equal or better last year's semifinal run before potentially stepping aside. Instead, his last AFCON ends in the Round of 16, defeated by the team that launched his African legacy.
Football can be a brutal storyteller.
Pagou's quiet vindication
David Pagou became Cameroon's coach amid chaos. Marc Brys, the Belgian originally appointed, was dismissed by Eto'o just weeks before the tournament. Star players like André Onana, Vincent Aboubakar, and Eric Choupo-Moting were left home — some said dropped, others said pushed out after supporting Brys.
Pagou, a domestic coach with no international experience, was thrown into the fire. The doubters lined up.
Now he's in the quarterfinals, facing hosts Morocco on Friday. His young Lions have taken seven points from their group and eliminated a World Cup-bound South African side that reached last year's AFCON semifinal.
"We are soldiers and we work for the nation," Pagou said earlier in the tournament. On this evidence, his soldiers are buying in.
What happens next
Morocco awaits. The Atlas Lions have been clinical, ruthless, and blessed with home-crowd fervor. Cameroon will be underdogs again.
But this team has already proven it thrives on being underestimated. Tchamadeu scoring from defense. Kofane arriving from reluctance to relevance. Mbeumo creating from the right with the hunger of a man at his first major tournament.
Broos learned on Sunday that mercy is not something you promise. It's something you earn.
Cameroon earned the right to dream a little longer.
Final Score: South Africa 1-2 Cameroon
Goals: Tchamadeu 31', Kofane 47'; Makgopa 87'
Venue: Agdal Medina Stadium, Rabat
Attendance: 42,000