Guinea 1-2 Burkina Faso: The Stallions Join the Elephants in Angola

In a group where the team making it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa has been known for quite sometime unofficially, yesterday confirmed officially thanks to an equalizer by super-sub Didier Drogba in the Blantyre match between Malawi and Cote d'Ivoire. Guinea and Burkina-Faso faced each other to decide which two remaining teams would make it to the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola alongside the Elephants.

In a very neutral and empty Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, due to political problems and turmoil in Conakry, the goal was simple for Guinea. They needed to win as they shared with Malawi a number of points before this weekend's games. After Malawi and Cote d'Ivoire drew last night in Blantyre, Guinea is the last team in the group and will be facing Cote d'Ivoire in November in Abidjan to try and get the third spot that would qualify them to the African Cup of Nations.

As for Burkina, it was all about securing their participation to Africa's biggest continental competition by winning against Guinea and making themselves mathematically unreachable ahead of their confrontation against Malawi on November 14th.

And it was clearly the Burkinabe who came on with the strongest will to get things over with. Even though they outrageously dominated the game, it took the Burkinabe 37 minutes to finally get the lead with a penalty by Moumouni Dagano, the all-time leading scorer in Burkina Faso after Guinean defender Mamadou Diallo fouled Dieudonné Minoungou hard in the penalty area.

Coming back from the locker room, Guinean players showed more aggressiveness than anything else and harvested a few yellow cards in the process. But pretty quickly, Paulo Duarte's men started dominating again and Habib Bamogo scored his first international goal for Burkina Faso in the 60th minute.

From then on it was smooth sailing for the Stallions, who were not even shaken up by Mamadou Bah's goal at the 83rd minute. As was predicted, Guinea is still not organised enough and Pascal Feindouno's team mates will have to defy Didier Drogba's team mates in the Houphouët Boigny Stadium if they want the third spot of the group.

Being last in the standings doesn't bode well for Guinea's future.

Massaër Ndiaye, Goal.com