Cameroon forward Bryan Mbeumo says their first-half performance let them down in their quarter-final defeat by hosts Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), leaving him “really sad” about the manner of his country’s exit from the tournament.

The Indomitable Lions went down 2-0 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on Friday night, with Brahim Diaz and Ismael Saibari scoring the goals in front of a vibrant, partisan crowd.

Playing at his first Afcon since declaring for Cameroon in 2022, the 26-year-old, who was born in France, started all five games, failing to find the net but registering an assist for the winning goal in his team’s opening match against Gabon.

“We didn’t play our football and we saw in the second half that we were a much better team on the ball and we made them adapt a lot,” the Manchester United forward told BBC Sport Africa.

“They took their chances and congratulations to them.”

While Mbeumo had claims for a second-half penalty waved away, Cameroon head coach David Pagou agreed with his player’s assessment.

“It’s true that the players were a bit timid at the start of the match,” he said.

“In the second half we saw some improvement and the team came back into the game

“Overall, we are satisfied with this group, which gave a lot of emotions to the Cameroonian people. That was the objective.

“Unfortunately, Morocco stopped us in our tracks. We will go back calmly and continue our progression.”

Pagou was only appointed to lead Cameroon on the eve of the finals, stepping up from a more junior role after Belgian Marc Brys was sacked in controversial style by the Cameroonian Football Federation and its president Samuel Eto’o, who was in attendance in Rabat.

Cameroon left several senior players, including goalkeeper Andre Onana, out of the squad, preferring to bring a more youthful selection to Morocco.

Among those to impress was Bayer Leverkusen striker Christian Kofane, who made his international debut in the group match against Ivory Coast and scored goals against Mozambique and South Africa – having made his professional debut in Spain’s second tier only a year ago.

“We have such a good group, such a quality group – young as well, so that’s positive for the future,” said Mbeumo.