By David Gold
October 29 – One of the favourites for the 2012 African Nations Cup, Côte d’Ivoire, will be confident of making progress from the group stage of the tournament after being drawn in Group B with Sudan, Burkina Faso and 2010 hosts Angola.
After a qualification process full of surprises, some of the teams who may have expected to challenge for the title did not even make it to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which is where the competition will take place from January 21 to February 12.
Among those unfortunate teams were the winners of the last three tournaments, Egypt, and 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa – both knocked out by Niger – who face a difficult task to reach the quarterfinals after being drawn in Group C with Gabon, Morocco and Tunisia.
Last year’s World Cup quarter finalists Ghana, who will vie with Côte d’Ivoire for the title of pre-tournament favourites, face Botswana, Mali and Guinea, who took the scalp of Nigeria in qualifying, in Group D.
Former Ghana international Anthony Baffoe said after the draw that it would be a tricky group to qualify in.
“Mali is strong, and as for Guinea, one should not forget that they qualified from a group that had Nigeria,” he said.
“I hope the boys will be thorough and qualify from the first round.
“Some say we are favourites, but there is also Ivory Coast and do not forget Senegal and Zambia too.”
Group A puts Equatorial Guinea up against Senegal, who accounted for the absence of Cameroon.
Joining them will be Zambia and Libya, who will face the tournament hosts in the opening game on January 21.
“This is a very difficult group,” said Benjamín Zarandona, a former Equatorial Guinea star.
“Senegal had an impressive qualification run…the most important thing is to start with a victory against Libya.
“This is the first time Equatorial Guinea [will] play in African Cup of Nations finals and it would be great to win the first game too.”
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