Africa Cup of Nations 2012

[Panda]

This starts on Saturday and is being co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon with live coverage on Eurosport and ITV4.

Quite a few big names missing this time, including Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa, with Botswana and Niger joining Equatorial Guinea as debutants in the finals.

GROUP A
Equatorial Guinea
Libya
Senegal
Zambia

GROUP B
Ivory Coast
Sudan
Burkina Faso
Angola

GROUP C
Gabon
Niger
Morocco
Tunisia

GROUP D
Ghana
Botswana
Mali
Guinea

[Paddy]

On paper this is Cote d'Ivoire's to walk away with

[suedehead]

It looks like most of the live coverage is on Eurosport with ITV4 showing mostly highlights, aka loads of adverts with brief interruptions for a bit of football.

[Razzle Dazzle]

senegal have a good team now and ghana can never be ruled out but yeah you would think they are in with a shout

[Razzle Dazzle]

also this might come in handy

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Africa_Cup_of_Nations_squads

[Paddy]

Senegal GK is a free agent...bit surprising.

[Razzle Dazzle]

not great that not even New York Red Bulls wanted to renew his contract, not just that but nobody wanted to draft him in, must be awsome

[Razzle Dazzle]

although the one thing i remember from past Africa Cup of Nations is the terrible goalkeeping

[Panda]

Jan 18, 2012 0:52:30 GMT 1 suedehead said:

It looks like most of the live coverage is on Eurosport with ITV4 showing mostly highlights, aka loads of adverts with brief interruptions for a bit of football.

Yeah, it's just four live games on ITV4 - the group game between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, one quarter, one semi and the final.

[Razzle Dazzle]

never i was looking forward to a few games, don't have eurosport

[Paddy]

I have Eurosport this year

ACON and Aussie open atm!

[Panda]

Bizarrely, qualifying for the next Cup of Nations got underway at the weekend, before the 2012 competition has even finished.

It's moving to odd-numbered years after this tournament and because of the short turn-around, qualifying for 2013 is going to be a knockout competition. The first round got underway on Sunday with Sao Tome & Principe beating Lesotho 1-0 in their first leg - their first international victory for 12 years.

[Shireblogger]

All-Time African Nations Cup table - version 1

Based on tournament victories, runners-up etc.


rank . nation [hosts] 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th

1 . Egypt [H: 1959;1974;1986;2006 :] 7 - 1 - 3 - 3
2 . Ghana [H: 1963;1978;2000j;2008 :] 4 - 4 - 1 - 1
3 . Cameroon [H: 1972 :] 4 - 2 - 1 - 1
4 . Nigeria [H: 1980;2000j :] 2 - 4 - 7 - 0
5 . DR Congo (Zaire) [H: :] 2 - 0 - 1 - 1
6 . Tunisia [H: 1965;1994;2004 :] 1 - 2 - 1 - 2
7 . Sudan [H: 1957;1970 :] 1 - 2 - 1 - 0
8 . Ivory Coast [H: 1984 :] 1 - 1 - 4 - 2
9 . Algeria [H: 1990 :] 1 - 1 - 2 - 2
10 . Morocco [H: 1988 :] 1 - 1 - 1 - 2
10 . Ethiopia [H: 1962;1968;1976 :] 1 - 1 - 1 - 2
12 . South Africa [H: 1996 :] 1 - 1 - 1 - 0
13 . Congo (Brazzaville) [H: :] 1 - 0 - 0 - 1
14 . Zambia [H: :] 0 - 2 - 3 - 0
15 . Senegal [H: 1992 :] 0 - 1 - 0 - 3
15 . Mali [H: 2002 :] 0 - 1 - 0 - 3
17 . Uganda [H: :] 0 - 1 - 0 - 1
18 . Guinea [H: :] 0 - 1 - 0 - 0
18 . Libya [H: 1982 :] 0 - 1 - 0 - 0
20 . Burkina Faso [H: 1998 :] 0 - 0 - 0 - 1

[Shireblogger]

All-Time African Nations Cup table - version 2

based on 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw


rank . nation :: points - played - won - drawn - lost

1 . Egypt :: 168 -PL 92 -W 51 -D 15 -L 26
2 . Nigeria :: 145 -PL 80 -W 42 -D 19 -L 19
3 . Ghana :: 133 -PL 71 -W 40 -D 13 -L 18
4 . Cameroon :: 127 -PL 71 -W 35 -D 22 -L 14
5 . Ivory Coast :: 104 -PL 71 -W 29 -D 17 -L 25
6 . Algeria :: 83 -PL 60 -W 22 -D 17 -L 21
7 . Zambia :: 78 -PL 55 -W 21 -D 15 -L 19
8 . Morocco :: 73 -PL 51 -W 18 -D 19 -L 14
9 . Tunisia :: 72 -PL 54 -W 17 -D 21 -L 16
10 . DR Congo (Zaire) :: 63 -PL 56 -W 16 -D 15 -L 25
11 . Senegal :: 56 -PL 43 -W 15 -D 11 -L 17
12 . South Africa :: 48 -PL 31 -W 13 -D 9 -L 9
13 . Guinea :: 39 -PL 29 -W 10 -D 9 -L 10
14 . Mali :: 38 -PL 28 -W 10 -D 8 -L 10
15 . Sudan :: 23 -PL 20 -W 6 -D 5 -L 9
15 . Ethiopia :: 23 -PL 22 -W 7 -D 2 -L 13
17 . Congo (Brazzaville) :: 21 -PL 22 -W 5 -D 6 -L 11
18 . Angola :: 20 -PL 18 -W 4 -D 8 -L 6
19 . Burkina Faso :: 12 -PL 23 -W 2 -D 6 -L 15
19 . Togo :: 12 -PL 18 -W 2 -D 6 -L 10
21 . Uganda :: 10 -PL 16 -W 3 -D 1 -L 12
21 . Libya :: 10 -PL 8 -W 2 -D 4 -L 2
23 . Gabon :: 9 -PL 11 -W 2 -D 3 -L 6
24 . Kenya :: 7 -PL 14 -W 1 -D 4 -L 9
25 . Zimbabwe :: 6 -PL 6 -W 2 -D 0 -L 4
26 . Liberia :: 5 -PL 5 -W 1 -D 2 -L 2
27 . Malawi :: 4 -PL 6 -W 1 -D 1 -L 4
27 . Sierra Leone :: 4 -PL 5 -W 1 -D 1 -L 3
27 . Rwanda :: 4 -PL 3 -W 1 -D 1 -L 1
30 . Mozambique :: 2 -PL 12 -W 0 -D 2 -L 10
30 . Namibia :: 2 -PL 6 -W 0 -D 2 -L 4
32 . Benin :: 1 -PL 9 -W 0 -D 1 -L 8
32 . Tanzania :: 1 -PL 3 -W 0 -D 1 -L 2
34 . Mauritius :: 0 -PL 3 -W 0 -D 0 -L 3

[o]

We always try and watch this, and we do have Eurosport, although we do tend to prefer the highlights because some of the games are just absolutely awful! So are only itv4 doing a highlights show?

[Robin]

Shame some of the biggest countries are missing this year (Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Togo, South Africa), the line up doesn't look particularly inspiring. Will probably watch it though

[paulgilb]

Group A:

Equatorial Guinea 1-0 Libya
Senegal 1-2 Zambia

[Paddy]

Real shock of a result.

[Panda]

Jan 22, 2012 1:01:15 GMT 1 Paddy said:

Real shock of a result.

Which one?

I wouldn't say either of them are massive shocks. Equatorial Guinea are co-hosting and have shown promise at junior levels in recent years. Libya have done well to qualify but they've really done nothing of note since the 1980s.

Senegal, although they've shown signs of improvement recently, are still nothing like the force they were 10 years ago and Zambia have always been one of the stronger African nations without ever reaching the elite level of the likes of Cameroon and Nigeria. Shireblogger's second table shows what a solid record they have in this competition.

I would expect both Zambia and Senegal to qualify from the group.

[Panda]

MJ Rankings projected knockout line-up:

Quarter-finals:
Zambia v Sudan
Ghana v Morocco
Tunisia v Botswana
Ivory Coast v Senegal

Semi-finals:
Zambia v Ghana
Botswana v Ivory Coast

Final:
Ghana v Ivory Coast