Cameroon opens the 33rd African Cup of Nations against Burkina Faso on Sunday with the goal of the final on February 6, like the other favorites, Algeria, defending champion, or Senegal, who still dreams of a first crown.
Group A: Cameroon at home
Hosts of the competition, five-time champions, crowned again in 2017, the Indomitable Lions are the favorites of this group. They will have the advantage of playing in stadiums filled up to 80%, and not 60% as for the other matches of the tournament.
Behind come the Cape Verde of “Stopira” (Ianique dos Santos Tavares) and “Platini” (Luis Carlos Almada Soares), and Burkina-Faso of Bertrand Traoré.
Coincidentally, the best performance of the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde (quarter-finals) as of the Stallions of Burkina Faso (final) dates back to CAN-2013.
Ethiopia, in the midst of civil war, victorious in 1962, is no longer a tenor. This is only her third participation in 40 years.
Group B: Senegal is under pressure
Never titled, the Senegalese Lions and their golden workforce (Édouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mané …) arrive in Cameroon with the pressure of huge favorites, a little forced to win to quench an eternal thirst.
The first round should not slow down the men of Aliou Cissé, superior on paper to Guinea, who replaced Didier Six with his deputy, Kaba Diawara, a month before the tournament.
The Zimbabwe of Lyonnais Tino Kadewere deprived of his two other stars, Marsall Munetsi (Reims) and Marvelous Nakamba (Aston Villa), injured, and modest Malawi appears a notch below.
Group C: the most advanced group
The Morocco of Vahid Halilhodzic seems the best armed, with the Parisian Achraf Hakimi and his Sevillian trio formed by goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and forwards Munir El Haddadi and Youssef En-Nesyri, but he finds himself in the densest group of the first round.
Among the favorites, the “Atlas Lions” will meet Ghana, four times winner of the CAN and still among the contenders. Comoros, one of the two beginners, will be one of the attractions of the tournament.
The last residents of group C, the Panthers of Gabon lost their bite after the positive test Thursday of their stars Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mario Lemina.
Group D: a Nigeria-Egypt shock
Group D, in Garoua, in northern Cameroon, will open with a shock weighing ten CAN between Nigeria (3 titles) and Egypt (7 titles).
The “Super Eagles”, who thanked their coach Gernot Rohr four weeks before kick-off, are deprived of Victor Osimhen, blocked by the Covid in Naples, but remain formidable. The “Pharaohs” is counting on one of the best players in the world, Mohamed Salah (Liverpool).
Guinea-Bissau and Sudan, which landed Hervé Velud at the same time as Rohr, are competing for the role of an outsider of the hen.
Group E: Algeria-Ivory Coast duel
Another great African classic dominates group E between the defending champion, Algeria of Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City), and one of the favorites, the Ivory Coast of the top scorer in the Champions League, Sébastien Haller.
The clash between “Greens” and “Elephants” is scheduled for the third and final match.
If Sierra Leone seems less strong, Equatorial Guinea, qualified on the field for the first time after two CAN as an organizer, threatened Tunisia to the end in qualifying for the World Cup.
Group F: Eagle fight
The Carthage Eagles of Tunisia and those of Mali hover over Group F, a priori too high for Mauritania, in their second participation, and the Gambia, in their first.
Wahbi Khazri’s Tunisia was a semi-finalist three years ago and present at the World Cup in 2018.
Mali also aligns a good workforce with Hamari Traoré (Rennes) or Amadou Haïdara (Leipzig). However, the powerful Moussa Marega, more called since 2019, favors his club, Al-Hilal, in Saudi Arabia, like Cheick Doucouré with Lens.
But those absent are always wrong, and almost all the African stars will be in Cameroon.
