“Pressure and I are like husband and wife,” Gabon coach Jose Antonio Camacho once famously said.
On today’s showing, it looks as though the marriage is more likely to end in divorce than happily ever after.
After Gabon’s opening day draw with minnow Guinea-Bissau, anything other than a win against Burkina Faso would make qualification for the knockout stage unlikely.
Despite a spirited second-half effort, Wednesday’s 1-1 draw means the host nation will be watching the late match between Cameroon and Guinea-Bissau with a keen eye.
With that must-win nature of the match in mind Gabon started brightly. A mistake in the Burkina Faso defense inside the opening 60 seconds allowed Andre Biyogo Poko space down the right, but he was eventually smothered by a wall of white shirts.
Gabon continued to press and Johann Obiang’s cross fell to Denis Bouanga, whose crisp half-volley rattled the underside of Kouakou Koffi’s crossbar.
The pitch made it increasingly difficult for either side to find rhythm in their passing and the sandy, uneven surface soon claimed its first victim.
Jonathan Pitroipa, player of the tournament in 2013 when Burkina Faso reached the final, limped off in considerable pain inside 10 minutes and was replaced by Prejuce Nakoulma.
It would be the first of four injury-enforced substitutions, with the less than perfect pitch in Libreville once again drawing criticism.
Having dominated for the majority of the opening 20 minutes, Gabon — seemingly on the front foot — won a succession of corners.
Biyogo Poko’s deliveries had so far failed to find a teammate and his set piece once again landed on the boot of a grateful Burkinabe defender.
One long clearance up-field prompted substitute Nakoulma to scamper after the ball and put pressure on the last man, fullback Obiang.
Nakoulma won the ball and used all his might to hold off the challenge of two Gabonese defenders, before cleverly cutting the ball into the far corner past the helpless Didier Ovono in the Gabon goal.
The Turkey-based striker rushed to his bench in celebration, sat down and put his finger to his lips. The home crowd, reeling from going behind, duly obliged and descended into a shocked hush.
That silence soon turned into frustrated groans and boos, as the sparse crowd inside the Stade d’Angondjé in the Gabonese capital began to make their feelings known.
Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, known for donning Spiderman and Batman masks when celebrating goals for Borussia Dortmund, had to step forward. Gabon needed a hero.
Just 15 minutes after falling behind, the host was handed a lifeline — and this time the long was ball forward was the undoing of Burkina Faso’s defense.
Aubameyang’s searing pace took him beyond a static back line and goalkeeper Koffi got to the through ball second, clipping Aubameyang’s heels to give the referee no choice but to award the penalty.
The Dortmund star stepped up and confidently dispatched the spot kick to Koffi’s right.
As the game wore on, the numbers in the crowd began to grow and with them so did the noise and expectancy.
Benjamin Ze Ondo’s cross into the box found Aubameyang at the far post, his knockdown landing at Bouanga’s feet but Koffi flicked out a toe to turn the ball behind for a corner.
For all its huffing and puffing, Gabon was unable to carve out another chance of real note. The dejected Gabonese players and delighted Burkina Faso men telling the story at the final whistle.
Burkina Faso now only needs to beat unfancied Guinea-Bissau for a place in the knockout stages, while Gabon faces a daunting clash against African heavyweight Cameroon.
