Izuchukwu Okosi
Teams: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Angola, Mauritania
Two-time champions of the African Cup of Nations, Algeria will be hard pressed to reclaim their AFCON title which they won in 2019 but could not defend in Cameroon two years later.
The Desert Foxes were favourites to win the title in Cameroon again but fell against lowly ranked sides like Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThis time around its safe to say that the Algerians are wiser by the experience of 2019.
In Cote d’Ivoire, they will play Burkina Faso, Angola and Mauritania.
Of the three foes, Burkina Faso seems the toughest customers on paper because they boast of players who are strutting their talents across Europe and are of greater qualities than what Angola and Mauritania can offer.
Algeria’s coach Djamel Belmadi have managed to convince some players of Algerian descent like Houssem Aouar, Amine Gouiri and Rayan Ait-Nouri who were on the verge of changing allegiance to France to play for the Fennecs. They are bouyed to show Les Blues what they are missing.
Burkina Faso have enterprising stars like Edmond Tapsoda of Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa’s Bertrand Traore and Luton Town’s stalwart Issa Kabore to drive their ambitious campaign in Cote d’Ivoire.
Mauritania is everybody’s weeping boys of Group D but they can look at some of the shocking results across the continent in the last Afcon and the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying round of fixtures in November 2023 for some inspiration.
Angola is something of a curious case. They upset Nigeria enroute their debut at the 2006 World Cup in Germany but have not managed to break even at the Nations Cup.
Manager Pedro Soares Goncalves has been tasked to change that narrative but he has a huge challenge ahead of him.
Prime Business Africa’s Verdict: It is not inconceivable to imagine that a ln upset might be on the cards in any of the matches involving Algeria due to the emerging forces in African football where so-called smaller teams do not have fear for their more illustrious opponents.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
