Their first international match was played on April 13, 1960, in the
Jeux de la Communauté in
Madagascar and ended with a 5–4 victory against
Gabon.
Africa Cup of Nations The country made their first appearance in the
Africa Cup of Nations in
1978, but it was not until
1996 that they returned to the biennial tournament. They subsequently qualified for five consecutive tournaments between 1996 and 2004, reaching the semi-finals under coach
Philippe Troussier when the tournament was held on home soil in 1998. Burkina Faso played in Group B of the
2010 Africa Cup of Nations alongside Ghana and Ivory Coast in a three-team group due to Togo's withdrawal. Although they drew their first match against Ivory Coast and needed just a draw against Ghana to progress, the Burkinabe lost 1–0 and failed to qualify for the knock-out stage of the tournament. Burkina Faso took part in the
2012 Africa Cup of Nations, losing all three of their matches and subsequently firing coach
Paulo Duarte. Belgian coach
Paul Put was announced as new coach in March 2012. Burkina Faso finished first of their group, but lost to Nigeria in the final of the
2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The team would earn third place at the
2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
World Cup qualifying Burkina Faso first entered the World Cup in the
1978 qualifying tournament, beating
Mauritania in the preliminary round before losing 1–3 against
Ivory Coast. They next entered World Cup qualifying in
1990, losing in the first round to
Libya 2–3. Burkina Faso withdrew from the 1994 competition but returned in
1998, beating
Mauritania again to make it to the final qualifying group stage, however they failed to obtain a single point, finishing bottom of their group. They beat
Ethiopia in
2002 to again make it to the qualifying group stage, but did not advance, only winning one game against
Malawi. The team had a strong showing in the
2014 World Cup qualification campaign, reaching the final round of qualifying where it faced
Algeria. It won 3–2 in Ouagadougou, but lost 1–0 in
Blida. Despite the 3-3 aggregate, Burkina Faso narrowly missed out on the
2014 World Cup due to the
away goals rule. ==Nickname==