African Cup 2023 Preview

The 2023 African Cup of Nations is scheduled to be the 34th edition of the biennial African Association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football. It will be hosted by Ivory Coast for the second time and the first since 1984.

The tournament was proposed to celebrate in summer, 2023. However, the harsh climatic conditions forced the change towards the winter of 2024. Although the event will keep its original name to evade further confusion. Originally, it was due to be celebrated in Guinea, but the country failed to make the preparations in time. 

Senegal are the defending champions as we enter this edition. The team led by the likes of Sadio Mané, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Édouard Mendy beat the Egypt of Mohammed Salah in the final of the last edition via penalties.

African Cup 2023 Draw and Group Stage:

Where can I watch it?

DAZN, Star+, and beIN SPORTS XTRA

The final draw was held at the Parc des Expositions d’Abidjan in Abidjan on 12 October 2023.

The 24 teams were divided into six groups of four each, with the four initial pots determined based on the September 2023 FIFA World Rankings, listed below. Ivory Coast was automatically given the top seed and assigned to position A1 in the draw as hosts.

Group A

Ivory Coast

Nigeria

Equatorial Guinea

Guinea-Bissau 

Group B:

Egypt

Ghana

Cape Verde

Mozambique

Group C:

Senegal

Cameroon

Guinea

Gambia 

Group D:

Algeria

Burkina Faso

Mauritania

Angola 

Group E:

Tunisia

Mali

South Africa

Namibia

Group F:

Morocco

DR Congo

Zambia

Tanzania

Out of every group, 2 teams will make it to the knockout stage, and 4 out of 6 of the third-placed teams will, possibly, make the knockout stage based on ranking.

With only 3 matchdays, the teams will start playing this Saturday, January 15th, and the first matchday will end on Wednesday, January 17th.

The next day, the second matchday begins and lasts until Sunday 21st, as the 3rd matchday will start on Monday 22nd, and wrap up on Wednesday, January 24th.

African Cup 2023 Knock Out Stage:

The knockout stage will be the second and final stage of the competition. It will begin on January 27th, with the round of 16 ending on February 11th, and with the final being held at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.

A total of 16 teams (the top two from each group, along with the four best third-placed teams) advance to the knockout stage to compete in a single-elimination style tournament.

African Cup 2023: Favorites to Win

As of currently, before the first game kicks off, there are already some countries favored to win the cup, and we’ll go right into it.

Senegal – The Defending Champions are currently the favorites to win, and they are going to fight things out in group C.

Ivory Coast – The hosts for the event are the second favorites, as they do have a home advantage and seem to be strong enough to push through. They are playing in group A.

Morocco – The team is not far behind the other two as one of the top favorites, and things point towards them faring well in Group F.

Algeria – The group D representative is dropping a little behind the other favorites, but they are expected to make a good fight on their way to the KO Stage.

Egypt – The Egyptian team is next in line on the Favorites, so it is expected for them to dominate group B. They are the team with the most titles in this competition.

Tunisia – We did have to skip over two spots when it comes to the overall favorites, but we had to point out that Tunisia is the highest on the list when it comes to group E.