AFCON 2023: Group C Match Day 1 Preview
Gambia vs Senegal
This will be the first encounter between Senegal and Gambia at the Africa Cup of Nations. Excluding the CAF African Nations Championship, Senegal and Gambia last faced each other in the qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup: both games ended in draws (0-0; 1-1).
Senegal are making their 17th appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They will be aiming to win back-to-back AFCON tournaments for the first time since Egypt’s three in a row from 2006 to 2010, although no AFCON defending champion has progressed further than the round of 16 in the last six editions of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.
Senegal have won their opening game in each of the last four CAF Africa Cup of Nations (v Ghana in 2015, v Tunisia in 2017, v Tanzania in 2019, v Zimbabwe in 2022).
Since 2017, Senegal have kept more clean sheets than any other team in the Africa Cup of Nations (13 in 18 matches).
This is Gambia’s second appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They reached the quarter finals in their inaugural participation in the 2021 edition, eventually losing 2-0 to Cameroon.
As per the last edition, Gambia were the only team to make it through both the preliminary round and group stage of the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, beating Chad in the preliminaries and finishing second to Mali in the group phase.
Despite reaching the quarter finals in AFCON 2021, Gambia never scored more than one goal in their five matches (W3 D1 L1). All three of their victories were by a 1-0 scoreline.
Sadio Mané has scored or assisted 48% of Senegal’s goals over the last three CAF Africa Cup of Nations (8 goals, 3 assists). He’s also had 97 touches in the opposition box (5.4 per game) and completed 57 dribbles (3.2 per game) since his debut in the competition in 2015, more than any other player over that period.
This is Aliou Cissé’s fourth consecutive CAF Africa Cup of Nations as Senegal head coach – under his leadership, the Lions of Teranga have been quarter-finalists in 2017, beaten finalists in 2019 and champions in 2022. Senegal have also won more games (11) and kept more clean sheets (13) at AFCON than any other team during the same period.
Musa Barrow was directly involved in all four of Gambia’s goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, scoring twice and assisting the other two.
Cameroon vs Guinea
This will be the third encounter between Cameroon and Guinea at the Africa Cup of Nations, all taking place in the group stages. The two previous meetings ended in draws: 2-2 in 1998 and 1-1 in 2015.
Cameroon are making their 21st appearance in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, a tally only bettered by Egypt (26), Côte d’Ivoire (25) and Ghana (24). Egypt (7) are the only team to have won the tournament on more occasions than The Indomitable Lions (5).
Cameroon won the only previous AFCON to be held in Côte d’Ivoire, it was in 1984. They beat Nigeria 3-1 in the final.
Penalty shoot-outs excluded, Cameroon have lost only one of their last 17 matches at the Africa Cup of Nations (W8 D8), a 3-2 defeat against Nigeria in the round of 16 of the 2019 edition.
Guinea are taking part in their 14th CAF Africa Cup of Nations. It’s the most appearances for a team at the tournament without ever winning it – the closest they came was in 1976 when Guinea finished second to Morocco in what was then a final group stage.
Guinea have reached the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations in six of their last seven participations but have never actually progressed in the knockout phase of the competition during that time, either in normal/extra-time or on penalties.
Guinea have won only two of their last 13 matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (D6 L5), a 2-0 win against Burundi in 2019 and 1-0 against Malawi in 2022.
Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko Ekambi scored 13 of Cameroon’s 14 goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, eight and five respectively. Aboubakar’s total was the highest in an edition of the tournament since 1974.
Cameroon’s Rigobert Song is making his first CAF Africa Cup of Nations appearance as head coach. As a player, he featured in a joint-record eight AFCON tournaments and won it on two occasions (2000, 2002).
Guinea’s nine goals scored in the qualifiers of this African Cup of Nations were scored by eight different players, with Naby Keïta the only player to find the net twice.
