LIBREVILLE: A new-look Ivory Coast will defend their Africa Cup of Nations title while the hosts’ lightning-quick striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leads the cast of superstar names as the 2017 tournament begins in Gabon on Saturday.
As Borussia Dortmund striker Aubameyang prepares to carry the hopes of the small central African nation on his shoulders at the biennial African football showpiece, the fleet-footed Riyad Mahrez will aim to top a magnificent 12 months by taking Algeria to the Feb.5 final and the continental title.
Mahrez heads for Gabon fresh from winning the Confederation of African Football player of the year prize for 2016, pipping last year’s winner Aubameyang.
“The next thing after this award is the Africa Cup of Nations. My team will try to do good things there,” the French-born star of Leicester City’s Premier League title triumph said after securing the CAF prize.
Algeria and a Senegal side — the top-ranked in Africa — led by Liverpool forward Sadio Mane are the major contenders to succeed the Ivory Coast, who beat Ghana on penalties in the final in Equatorial Guinea two years ago.
But they will face each other in a Group B that also contains Tunisia and outsiders Zimbabwe.
“Our group is difficult, with some top African sides. It is not going to be easy with the conditions in Africa but we have to be prepared and we have a great team,” Mahrez told beIN Sports recently.
The Elephants of the Ivory Coast have seen inspirational playmaker Yaya Toure retire since their 2015 win while forward Gervinho is injured and Michel Dussuyer has succeeded fellow Frenchman Herve Renard as coach.
“The objective is of course to defend the title that was proudly acquired in 2015,” said Dussuyer, one of 12 men from Europe or South America coaching in the 16-team tournament.
“It will not be easy. There are fine teams who aspire to win the trophy, but we have the weapons to go far.”
The Elephants will come up against their old coach Renard in Group C with his new side Morocco, and they are the favorites to reach the quarterfinals ahead of DR Congo and the Togo of Emmanuel Adebayor.
“I have made reaching the quarterfinals an objective that we absolutely must attain. If we get there then we will see what we can do,” said the perennially bronzed and white-shirted Renard, who also coached Zambia to glory the last time the Cup of Nations was staged in Gabon — jointly with Equatorial Guinea — in 2012.
Egypt are back for the first time since winning a record seventh Cup of Nations in Angola in 2010 and will pin their hopes on Roma winger Mohamed Salah.
They are one of six teams who qualified having missed out in 2015. Another, Uganda, will come up against Egypt in Group D, as will Mali and Ghana.
The only nation making its Cup of Nations debut is Guinea-Bissau, who have the honor of facing Aubameyang’s Gabon in the opening game at the Stade de l’Amitie in the capital Libreville on Jan. 14.
Gabon, an oil-rich country of barely 1.8 million people, has been in some disarray ever since incumbent President Ali Bongo was declared the winner of a contested election in August.
Defeated opposition chief Jean Ping continues to dispute the result and post-election violence left at least three people dead and saw more than 800 arrested.
Opposition activists have called on citizens to boycott the tournament, which will see games staged in Port-Gentil, Franceville and Oyem as well as the capital.
Gabon, which in 2014 was awarded the hosting of the tournament due to the turmoil in Libya, is struggling with an economic crisis as well as a political one.
However, Bongo, who invited Lionel Messi to the country to lay the foundation stone of the stadium in Port-Gentil in 2015, is hoping the football can act as a distraction.
He has called for the Cup of Nations to be a time for “joy, coming together and shared happiness” and insisted that “political dialogue will open the day after the tournament,” in an attempt to usher in a period of calm.
Aubameyang, Mahrez lead stars targeting Cup of Nations glory
Aubameyang, Mahrez lead stars targeting Cup of Nations glory
Marmoush, Salah strike as Egypt edge out holders Ivory Coast in quarter-final
- Egypt wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute
- That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance
AGADIR, Morocco: Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Center back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semifinal meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Egypt, who have won a record seven Cup of Nations titles, wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute after Hamdi Fathy pinched the ball from Franck Kessie in the midfield, allowing Emam Ashour to thread a pinpoint ball to the sprinting Marmoush. He still needed to shrug off the attentions of defender Odilon Kossounou before slotting home.
But it quickly became clear the Ivorians were going to dominate possession, showing much more physical strength on the ball but without setting up clear chances.
Egypt went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute when Rabia rose above the defenders to head his side further ahead from a corner.
The Ivory Coast, who had 70 percent of possession in the first half, reduced the deficit eight minutes later when teenager Yann Diomande’s freekick near the corner took a slight brush off Kossounou’s head and ricocheted off the knee of full back Fatouh and into the net.
SALAH FINISHED OFF CLEVER MOVE
The Ivorians had come from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 3-2 earlier in the tournament but hopes of turning the scoreline around soon after the re-start were stymied by a simply created, but superbly finished, goal for Salah seven minutes after the break.
Rabia was well inside his own half when he chipped the ball over the top of the Ivorian defensive line, allowing Ashour to run onto it and hit an accurate pass with the outside of his right boot into the path of Salah to score.
An Ivorian comeback was still on when Doue touched home at the end of a goalmouth scramble in the 73rd minute.
That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance.
Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria overpowered Algeria 2-0 in Marrakech and will take on hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
