APA – Dakar (Senegal) On Thursday evening, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) drew lots for the 34thedition of the African Cup of Nations (AfCON).
It’s 92 days to the opening match of the biennial showpiece of African football. On 13 January 2024, at the ‘Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara’ in Ebimpe, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire will kick off its Africa Cup of Nations campaign against fellow West Africans Guinea-Bissau.
The match is the result of the draw for the 34th edition of the tournament, which Felix Houphouet-Boigny’s country is hosting for the second time in its history after 1984. During an evening co-hosted by Akon, an American singer of Senegalese origin, Cote d’Ivoire gave a foretaste of the opening ceremony by treating the public at the ‘Parc des Expositions’ in Abidjan to a show rich in sound and colour.
Didier Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire), Sadio Mane (Senegal), Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) and John Obi Mikel (Nigeria), under the supervision of Samson Adamu, Director of Competitions at the Confederation of African Football (Caf), drew the balls to make up the six groups for the group phase. The result is a host of derbies and clashes.
Composition of the AfCON 2023 groups:
Group A (Abidjan, Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara d’Ebimpe)
Cote d’Ivoire (host country), Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
Group B (Abidjan, Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium)
Egypt, Ghana, Cabo Verde and Mozambique.
Group C (Yamoussoukro, Charles Konan Banny Stadium)
Senegal (defending champions), Cameroon, Guinea and Gambia.
Group D (Bouake, Stade de la Paix)
Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Angola.
Group E (Korhogo, ‘Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly’)
Tunisia, Mali, South Africa and Namibia.
Group F (San Pedro, Laurent Pokou Stadium)
Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Tanzania.
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