Cameroon launched the defence of their Africa Cup of Nations title with a routine 2-0 Group F victory over Guinea-Bissau, while Ghana were held to a 2-2 draw by Benin in their opening Afcon Group F game.

Cameroon 2-0 Guinea-Bissau

Yaya Banana and Stephane Bahoken were on target for the Indomitable Lions at the Ismailia Stadium in Egypt.

Christian Bassogog should have put Clarence Seedorf’s Cameroon ahead just past the half-hour mark when Karl Toko Ekambi burst down the left and his cutback found Bassogog, but he shanked his effort horribly over with goalkeeper Jonas Mendes out of position having attempted to close down Ekambi.

Guinea-Bissau offered little going forward with their best opportunities falling to Judilson Gomes and Juary Soares, who both fired over.

Banana opened the scoring after 66 minutes when he got on the end of a corner from Ekambi to head low past Mendes into the net.

It was 2-0 just three minutes later when a defensive mix-up in the Guinea-Bissau box saw an attempted clearance hit Sory Mane and the ball then dropped for Bahoken to calmly slot home.

Ghana 2-2 Benin

Ghana played most of the second half with 10 men and paid the price as Benin forced them to settle for a point when Mickael Pote netted his second goal of the game in Ismailia, Egypt.

Pote opened the scoring before Andre and Jordan Ayew netted for Ghana, who then had John Boye sent off in the second half for a second bookable offence.

Benin started well and took the lead after just two minutes through Pote, but Ghana recovered quickly from that setback as Fenerbache’s on-loan Swansea forward Andre Ayew levelled the scores seven minutes later.

Three minutes before the break Jordan Ayew, who is on loan at Crystal Palace from Swansea, put Ghana ahead when he collected a pass on the turn before firing in from the edge of the area.

Ten minutes into the second half Ghana’s hopes suffered a blow when Boye was shown a second yellow card for time wasting.

Tunisian referee Youssef Essayri decided to book Boye, who looked set to take a free kick in his own half before deciding to leave it to goalkeeper Richard Ofori.

Eight minutes later Benin were back on level terms as Pote netted his second goal of the game and that was enough to earn his side a share of the points.