With the Africa Cup of Nations kicking off on December 21, Sky Sports News’ Yoseph Kiflie takes a look at the storylines to watch from every group…
Group A
Morocco being favourites, but also as hosts, the tournament serves as a warm-up to the 2030 World Cup that they’ll be co-hosting with Spain and Portugal.
The team has been building towards success over the past decade with investment in youth pathways culminating in that semi-final run at Qatar, but they might be without captain Achraf Hakimi for the early stages after his horrible ankle injury against Bayern Munich.
Achraf Hakimi could miss the start of AFCON through injury
Group B
With Egypt, it is always about whether Mohamed Salah can win the tournament to remove any debate for Egyptians that he is their greatest player.
Despite all his success at Liverpool, a lot of Egyptians still put the stars of the 2000s side that won three AFCONs in a rows ahead of him.
Mohamed Salah remains a key focus ahead of Egypt’s AFCON campaign
This might be his year, given that whenever AFCON has been hosted by a North African country this century, it has been won by a North African country.
It might also be the first time that Liverpool fans wouldn’t mind him going, with Salah’s patchy form and recent apparent public falling out with the club.
Ahead of the 2022 and 2024 AFCONs, he had 32 and 28 goal involvements respectively, and maybe time away from Liverpool could even benefit him.
Group C
How will Nigeria react to not making the World Cup after losing on penalties to DR Congo in the play-off final?
Not being at two straight World Cups is a disaster when you consider how talented the squad, and their build-up to this tournament has been disrupted by the sudden retirement of captain William Troost-Ekong just weeks before the start of the tournament and a month after he led a team boycott over bonuses.
Group D
On the other hand, DR Congo are in party mode after their victory over Nigeria. But with them in Group D is the Senegal side they were runners-up to in World Cup qualifying.
Senegal were unbeaten in qualifying and after Morocco, are the team many are backing to win. Their 3-1 win over England in the summer is still Thomas Tuchel’s only loss and goals conceded since becoming England boss, and they are stacked with familiar faces from the Premier League.
Group E
Algeria won AFCON in 2019, but have not hit the same heights since
Algeria strolled through World Cup qualifiers, but since winning AFCON in 2019, they have failed to get out of the groups, and they could be in danger of it happening again.
Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea are with two of the biggest overachievers in recent AFCON history. Equatorial Guinea have had a rollercoaster year, with their World Cup qualifying first being hit by veteran captain Emilio Nsue briefly being deemed ineligible to play for them, despite having played for them for over 10 years.
Then there was a players’ strike ahead of their penultimate qualifier, which has seen Nsue and several other regulars banished from the squad for the final qualifier.
It will be very interesting to see who makes their squad for the tournament.
Group F
Ivory Coast are the reigning African Cup of Nations champions
Group F is arguably the group of death this year. You have reigning champions Ivory Coast, who since sacking their head coach in the middle of the last tournament have qualified for next summer’s World Cup without conceding a goal.
There’s Cameroon, who are in crisis after failing to reach the World Cup. They have sacked their head coach this week and have not included former Man Utd goalkeeper Andre Onana and captain Vincent Aboubakar.
That opens the door for Gabon. They finished second in World Cup qualifying to Ivory Coast, and lead by a resurgent Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, they could be well-placed to cause an upset.
