African Five-a-side

Day 5 of the Africa Cup of Nations saw Morocco take on Tanzania and DR Congo play Zambia. Morocco confirmed what they showed a year and a half ago in Qatar, while DR Congo showed a lot of promise but were held by the Chipolopolo.

Day two of the Africa Cup of Nations was full of surprises, as Nigeria started the day by drawing with Equatorial Guinea, Egypt followed that up by drawing with Mozambique, and Ghana finished it off by falling to Cape Verde.

On the opening day of the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the host nation Cote d'Ivoire took care of business in beating Guinea-Bissau, 2-0. the Ivorian midfield was dominant, however, there are still outstanding questions regarding the rest of the team. here are my thoughts after an impressive day, one of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Zambia were surprisingly good in Afcon qualifiers going head-to-head with Côte d'Ivoire. Their resurgence has been credited with the arrival of coach Avram Grant, who brings a cool and calm demeanour. At the Afcon they'll be exciting when attacking, but they need to shore up their naive defence.

We spoke to Buster Kirchner about the Chipolopolo.

You can follow Buster here: https://twitter.com/BusterEmil

As hosts of the 2021 Afcon, Cameroon were one of the strongest sides in the tournament. Despite their brilliant showing, FECAFOOT president Samuel Eto'o decided to sack the manager and hire his former captain Rigobert Song. Since then the results have been mixed: Song helped the team qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but has also faced criticism for lacklustre results in qualifying.

To break down the Indomitable Lions, we spoke to Giovanni Bambe, a Cameroonian freelance journalist.

You can follow Giovanni here: https://twitter.com/BambeWanneh

Angola make their return to the Africa Cup of Nations with coach Pedro Goncalves at their helm. Goncalves led the Angola U17 team to a Round of 16 berth at the U17 World Cup in 2019. Now he takes that same generation of players, with a few experienced players to Cote d'Ivoire to try and build on that success.

We speak to Eurico Costa who breaks down Angola's expectations for us.

You can follow Eurico here: https://twitter.com/passevertical

After a disastrous 2021 Afcon, and an improved 2022 FIFA World Cup performance, Ghanaian fans head into the 2023 Afcon with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Over the last six months, Ghana have really struggled to score and have been known as a cautious outfit under Chris Houghton. The solution? We spoke Ghanaian journalist Gary Al Smith to see what it is that he'd recommend.

You can follow Gary on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/garyalsmith

After missing out on the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, South Africa are returning to Africa's biggest party with some renewed confidence. Part of that is due to the success of Mamelodi Sundowns in Interclub competitions, and another part of it is the good work Belgian coach, Hugo Broos, has done with Bafana Bafana.

To discuss all of this we speak to SABC journalist Velile Mnyandu.

You can follow Velile on twitter here: https://twitter.com/Velile_Mnyandu

During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Morocco shocked the world when they became the first African nation to qualify for the semi-finals. Walid Regragui and co played organised, coherent football and are naturally favourites for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d'Ivoire.

To speak about Morocco, we invited Amine El Amri, a journalist that writes for Le Matin newspaper in Morocco.

You can follow Amine on twitter here: https://twitter.com/Amine_Elamri

How will the Carthage Eagles fare in Côte d'Ivoire?

The North Africans have perfected the art of qualifying for the Afcon - they haven't missed a tournament since 1992. Yet, they are also to win the tournament off of home soil.

We talk to Arafat Hamrouni, a Tunisian journalist that works for www.foot24.tn about how Tunisians are bored of the same old small successes and how they really want to make a final of the Afcon or win it.

However, over the past year, Msakni and co have blown hot and cold.