Ivory Coast start African Nations Cup campaign against Togo

LIBREVILLE: Ivory Coast will start their defence of the African Nations Cup against Togo in January, according to the draw made.

Ivory Coast, who beat Ghana on penalties in the 2015 final, are in Group C against Togo, Morocco and Congo.

Hosts Gabon, who saw political turmoil after a disputed election in August, will stage the opening match in Libreville on Jan 14 against Guinea-Bissau, who make their first appearance in the 16-nation tournament.

Cameroon and Burkina Faso are also in Group A.

The other group favourites, Algeria and Ghana, start against Zimbabwe and Uganda respectively.

Algeria have the toughest first round in Group B where they also take on Tunisia and Senegal for one of the two qualifying places for the quarter-finals.

Ghana are the team to beat in Group D. Apart from Uganda, they will take on Egypt, making their return to the contest after missing three finals, and Mali. The final is in Libreville on Feb 5. The draw produced three groups containing three of the top 10 ranked football nations in Africa, according to FIFA.

Algeria (2), Senegal (3) and Tunisia (4) are in one mini-league, Ivory Coast (1), Congo (6) and Morocco (10) in another and Ghana (5), Egypt (7) and Mali (9) in a third.

A lot of teams will get to know each other extremely well, too, as Ivory Coast and Morocco also share a 2018 World Cup qualifying group, as do Ghana, Egypt and Uganda.

Ivory Coast were not impressive in qualifying, drawing three of four matches against Sierra Leone and Sudan, and Morocco are probably a team they wanted to dodge.

The Moroccans are coached by Herve Renard, the charismatic Frenchman who masterminded the Ivorians’ triumph in Equatorial Guinea last year.

He then left for a brief, unsuccessful spell in the French Ligue 1 before being hired by Morocco, and they became the first qualifiers for the 2017 tournament. Renard has won the African Nations Cup twice, taking no-hopers Zambia to the title in Gabon four years ago.

“If I had to name teams I wanted to avoid before the draw, I would have said some of the teams in our group,” admitted Renard.

“To face Ivory Coast is difficult, especially as we have had the chance to know their players, it’s practically the same squad.

“But we have to be competitive. The match against Claude Le Roy (coach of Togo) will be something that again will be difficult for me.

“But over 90 minutes I have to forget everything this man did for me and do everything in order to beat him.”

Veteran Le Roy has won the African Nations Cup once, with Cameroon in 1988, and Gabon will mark his ninth appearance at the Finals.

He has failed to reach the knockout stage only once.

Being grouped with Ghana offers Egypt yet another chance to avenge one of their most humiliating results, a 6-1 thrashing by the Black Stars in a 2014 World Cup qualifier.