The life of a front player – Cameroon boss Broos reflects on Aboubakar horror show

Cameroon head coach Hugo Broos was philosophical about Vincent Aboubakar’s wastefulness in front of goal after his striker spurned a host of presentable chances in the 1-1 Confederations Cup draw against Australia.

The Africa Cup of Nations holders led on the stroke of half-time though Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, although Australia skipper Mark Milligan levelled from the penalty spot with an hour played.

Aboubakar’s trials in attack came either of the Australian equaliser and Broos was frustrated his team failed to put away vulnerable opponents.

Nevertheless, he was keen not to single out the Besiktas forward for criticism.

“This is the life of a front player,” the veteran Belgian told a post-match news conference. 

“Sometimes you score the goals with your eyes closed and sometimes you miss chances that you can’t miss.

“Today he was a little bit unlucky in the game. He had two or three good chances and didn’t score.

“That can happen. It’s a pity for us that it happened.

“This team is growing, this team is gaining experience and, don’t worry, if tomorrow I find a scorer who can score with his eyes closed, he will be playing.”

#ConfedCup – #Cameroun 1-1 #Australie
Les #Lions font match nul face à l’Australie et comptent 1 point au compteur. #CMRAUS pic.twitter.com/qiMvhI2ZcF

— Fecafoot-Officiel (@FecafootOfficie) June 22, 2017

Cameroon produced 19 shots to Australia’s five and Broos added: “I think the statistics say everything about the game. When you see this you have always to win the game, that is for sure.

“Over the 90 minutes we were the better team, we had the best chances and then you have to win it.

“The chances were there but we didn’t score and then you can’t win the game.”

Australia boss Ange Postecoglou again named an attacking line up that looked uneasy at times going the other way, as in the opening 3-2 defeat to Germany.

Despite growing criticism in sections of the Australian media, the 51-year-old vowed not to change his ways, even with progression from Group B now appearing to be a long shot ahead of the Socceroos’ closing round-robin game against Chile.

“In both games we’ve performed in the manner we want to,” he said. “We’re playing against the very best here.

“We’re disappointed with the goal we conceded. We’re still unfortunately having little lapses that are costing us.”

Postecoglou added: “We won’t get to where we want to get to sitting back. We’re relentless in that.

“We’ve taken both games to the opposition and we’ll do that against Chile as well. We had a poor half against Germany but for the rest of it we’ve been good.”