Men's Football CAF African Cup of Nations 2023

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Men's Football CAF African Cup of Nations 2023

 

Various Cities (CIV) - 13 January 2024 - 11 February 2024

 

 

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Edited January 7 by Sindo

[bestmen 2,818]

[thepharoah 2,405]

10 days left 

[thepharoah 2,405]

AFCON Prizes increased by 40 % :- 

 

• Winner : 7M $
• Runner-Up : 4M $
• Semi Finalist : 2.5 M $
• Quarter Finalist : 1.3 M $ 

 

https://www.cafonline.com/caf-africa-cup-of-nations/news/caf-increases-afcon-prize-money-by-40/

[thepharoah 2,405]

Favorite teams for title , here in AFCON , it's much harder than Asia with 9 teams none of them would be a surprise if they won and 3 outsiders all of them are capable of reaching the vary closing stages  

 

• Senegal ofc is a clear favorite , they reached both last 2 editions ' Final , they have the same coach from 2015 , so Players and Coach understand each other really easily , the only problem is 2 things :- keeping the momentum high after winning last edition for the 1st time ever , finding new motives ofc and the most important is that many key players are aging ; Mane , Koulibaly and Mendy are no longer playing in top level European teams , they are playing in Saudi Pro league now with much slower rythym 

 

• Morocco : is definitely the team to beat here,  historical WC defeating Spain , Portugal and Belgium and reaching Semis for the 1st time,  but WC was never an indicator for AFCON , none of teams that had a historical run in WCs before succeeded in winning the next AFCON title starting from Morroco 86 , Cameroon 90 , Senegal 2002 , Ghana 2010 none of these teams succeded to win next addition of AFCON and also Morroco's results in past editions do increase these concerns , they always had very strong Squad , but don't deliver good results in AFCON , except only 2004 edition where they reached the final , the same generation took part in last 3 editions , ofc the majority started from 2019 and they didn't go further than Quarters , so let's see if Morrocan Players learnt from previous tournaments or not , especially with some key players were missing in 2021 due to conflicts with the NT Coach ; Zeyach and Mazraoui for instance 

 

• Algeria : Another team to look at and the current politicial conflict with Morocco could be a very extra motive for Algerian Players to at least exceed Morocco Results in this edition , Algeria has the almost the same Squad that took part in previous 2 editions with some players not in great Shape like they used to do before ; Mahrez , Belaili whom Djamel Belmadi was criticized much for bringing him despite the fact he had many problems with the teams he played recently which ended in ending Contracts , Benrahma lost his main role in Westham after Signing Kudus who was really in form and scored 9 goals for them in a very short period , they aren't in great shape recently , but still they have the sufficient experienced Squad to go to the furthest point

 

• Egypt : Always a team to be considered in title race , winning 7 titles don't came from Nothing , we have Mo Salah who is the biggest Star of African Football in the last 5 years , so this is another reason , Egypt has reached 2 finals of last 3 tournaments , Mix of Experienced and youth players whom participated in last edition and gained experience , 4 Strikers in great Shape this Season ; Salah ofc top goalscorer in PL , Marmoush scoring many Goals with Frankfurt having his Best Season So far , Mostafa Mohamed had a great Start of Season with Nantes and Trezeguet back to form with TrabzonSppr in Turkey with some local names to be considered as well , I think Egypt can go as much far as possible as we don't have a boring defensive coach anymore like in 2017 and 2021 

 

• Cote D'Ivoire : Another very big competitor in title race , like always they have a strong Squad of players playing in top level in Europe , 2 of them went to Saudi Pro league ; Frank Kissie and Seko Fofana , they have the home advantage that always kept on giving in AFCON with Giants , except maybe for Egypt in 2019 , they haven't bad in last 2 editions where they lost in Penalties twice to Egypt and Algeria , so at home they can win it in regular time without the need to go to Penalties 

 

• Nigeria : A team backed of Stars , but always lacking of delivering in big Stages , they have a very strong Squad , the strongest actually in Offence to be precise ; Osimhen insane last season with Napoli , Samuel Chukweze , Alex Iwobi back in form with Fulham , Boniface having a great season with Leverkusen , Simon Moses one of the most underrated players in league 1 , Iheanacho , no other teams have this great quality of Strikers they have and they also have descent Midfielders and defenders , but I don't always trust Nigeria's teams and I wouldn't be surprised to see players refusing to train before much important match due to financial problems , they are always greedy for Money , it's their rights anyway 

 

• Cameroon and Ghana : U can't exclude both teams whom have won 12 titles jointly , Cameroon barely succeded to qualify and Ghana failed to qualify to R16 last time , but their current results with some good additions of players who have another nationalities starting from WC 2022 and ofc Mohamed Kudus I really love this guy and he has been insanely good with Westham this season , but yet they lost to Comoros in WC qualifiers 4-2 in their last official match 

 

• Tunisia : delivering some descent results always in Afcon , their problems start from Quarters , so let's see how far they can go , but for me they are the least out of this list with chances to go far 

[thepharoah 2,405]

• OutSiders :- 

 

1. Burkina Faso is definitely the team that always can deliver outside Top teams , they made much better results even than some of Top 9 teams we mentioned since 2013 , they have been a very strong power in AFCON last editions starting from 2013 , so not a surprise if they reached final Stages here like 2013 , 2017 , 2021 and I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Algeria either 

2. Mali : Another team to look at here , some very descent Squad backed of players playing in Europe top 5 leagues , they were really good in Group Stages of last 2 editions,  but barely lost in R16 , in WC qualifiers they lost to Tunisia by the most silly mistake of all time 

 

3. South Africa : Sundowns has been delivering from 2016 in African Stage , winning 1st edition of African Super league , so as long as many of their players playing already with SA , why not they go far as well 

 

4. Namibia : a team that can be a black horse here , they won 4 points from Cameroon in last African Cup qualifiers and they have a goal scoring Machine with Mamelodi Sundowns ; Peter Shaluile

[Federer91 2,796]

The tournament, which 95% of European club football fans hate. Especially ones for the "all mighty" English league. 

[thepharoah 2,405]

 

 

 

 

i really like these training suits and i'll definitely buy one 

 

 

[thepharoah 2,405]

 

Victor Boniface leverkusen Star will miss AFCON dur to injury , huge blow off for Nigeria's Chances here. 

 

He scored 16 goals for Leverkusen in all competitions 

[thepharoah 2,405]

 

Cote d'Ivoire got the job done in Opening day with a 2-0 victory over Guinea Bissau .

 

Not impressive show by hosts , but it was very enough to get the victory , next : Nigeria on big Thursday where Egypt will face Ghana also