Youcef Dahmani takes a look ahead to the 31st African Cup of Nations, hosted by Equatorial Guinea.
Group A:
Equatorial Guinea, host the tournament, but will find it tough to qualify for the knockout stages, being placed in a group that features Burkino Faso, Gabon and Congo. Over the past couple of years, Burkina Faso have improved dramatically, playing a good brand of football, as have Gabon, who made the quarter-final stage in 2012.
Gabon have some well known players such as Pierre Emerick Aubamayang who currently plays for Borussia Dortmund and Levy Madinda of Celta Vigo in Spain.
The last team in that group is Congo, who have been performing really well, mainly thanks to the performances of Thievy Bifouma who currently plays for Almeria.
Group B:
This could be called the ‘controversial group’ as 2012 AFCON winners Zambia will take on Tunisia, Cape Verde and Congo DR.
Tunisia never fail to cause an upset as in 2013, Youssef Msakni scored a superb goal to knock out favourites Algeria. They will be favourites to progress from the group, with Zambia following closely behind.
Group C:
Group C is now known as “The Group of Death” and features four-time winners Ghana, who are now coached by former Chelsea and West Ham boss Avram Grant.
Algeria, ranked highest of the African teams in the FIFA rankings are also included and have somewhat of a point too prove after some indifferent campaigns in recent years.
South Africa and Senegal make up the group but recent performances suggest that they may find it hard to compete with the aforementioned duo. Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse and Stoke City’s Mame Biram Diouf lead the line for Senegal.
Group D:
Group D features the Ivory Coast, a team featuring World Class players such as Yaya Toure and new Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony. Mali, Guinea and Cameroon make up the group, with the latter desperate to improve on their drastic World Cup campaign in 2014.