#AFCON2021: Underdogs, Sierra Leone Exit The AFCON Tournament.
Sierra Leone’s first return to the AFCON tournament since 1996 has come to an end in the group stages.
The Sierra Leone team fought till the last moment to qualify out of their group, but Equatorial Guinea had other ideas as they took the full three points in the final game of group E, played on the 20th of January 2022 in the AFCON 2021 competition in Cameroon.
Sierra Leone had come into the game to secure at least one point to push them out of the group stages into the round of 16, but they had missed their chance to secure all three points from the penalty spot.
Sierra Leone veteran striker Kei Kamara saw his 84th-minute penalty saved by the Equatorial Guinea goalkeeper, Jesus Owono.
READ MORE: #AFCON2021: Ghana's Watch at AFCON Comes to an End
Sierra Leone shocked everyone in the competition after they succeeded in holding the defending champions, Algeria, and the big power house, Ivory Coast, to a draw.
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Kamara had been under fire after his penalty miss, but the Sierra Leone defender, Steven Caulker, told BBC Sport Africa in a post-match interview that:
"Most of us are here because of Kei. He is our ringleader and everything to us.
We stand by him.
He scored the penalty to get us here in the first place. And he was brave enough to step up and take this penalty.
We gave it everything as a team and as a unit. We gave it everything until the end and go away with our heads held high."
