Preview: AFCON 2023

We are now just a couple of days away from the 34th Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with hosts Ivory Coast kicking things off against Guinea-Bissau this Saturday.

The tournament makes for a great Predictor game on Superbru, so to help you out with your predictions over the next few weeks, here's a quick preview.

AFCON 2023?

First of all, you can be forgiven for wondering why the title of this article and indeed the name of the tournament itself includes '2023' when we are now in 2024, but that's due to the competition being delayed.

AFCON regularly clashes with the European club football calendar, which is something the CAF have actually tried to avoid by moving the biennial tournament to the middle of the year, yet both the 2021 edition and this tournament have been pushed back by 6 months to avoid the tropical rainstorm season in western Africa (2021 was hosted by Cameroon).

So although it's taking place in January 2024, this is AFCON 2023. A bit like when Euro 2020 took place in 2021.

The tournament

24 nations will be competing in the Ivory Coast, making up six groups of four teams. You can see the groups in full below:



The top two teams progress to the knockout stages alongside the four best third-placed teams, which means only 8 nations are eliminated during the group phase.

All other games are straight knockout ties, with the Round of 16 starting on January 27th and the eventual final scheduled for February 11th.

Which teams are considered favourites?

After defeating Egypt on penalties in the 2021 final, Senegal are defending champions and they'll likely feel that they have the experience to go back-to-back. In addition to Premier League players Pape Sarr, Nicolas Jackson, Idrissa Gana Gueye and Cheikhou Kouyate, the Lions of Teranga have several stars who have recently headed to play in the Saudi Pro League including Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy.

Since that AFCON triumph we have of course had a World Cup though, and Morocco were the African nation that shone brightest in Qatar. Having overcome Belgium, Portugal and Spain to reach the World Cup semi-finals, Morocco will fancy their chances here.

Hosts Ivory Coast clearly shouldn't be underestimated, even if their squad isn't quite as strong as it has been in years gone by, while Egypt will hope to go one better than last time with star man Mohamed Salah still hoping to add an AFCON trophy to his impressive personal cabinet.

Aside from Salah, many of the tournament's star names play up front for Nigeria, though Bayer Leverkusen forward Victor Boniface has been ruled out due to injury. Even without Boniface, Nigeria have Victor Osimhen (Napoli), Samuel Chukwueze (Milan), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester), Ademola Lookman (Atalanta), Moses Simon (Nantes) and Umar Sadiq (Real Sociedad) to call upon for goals.

Since many of you play our Premier League Predictor, here are all of the PL players that will be competing in AFCON:



Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana is still set to play for United this Sunday in their Premier League game against Tottenham, meaning his availability for Cameroon's opener against Guinea on Monday is in doubt despite reports suggesting he can play both.

Previous AFCON winners

Egypt are the most successful team in AFCON history, but haven't won it since 2010. Here's the full list of winners.

7 titles: Egypt (1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010)
5 titles: Cameroon (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002, 2017)
4 titles: Ghana (1963, 1965, 1978, 1982)
3 titles: Nigeria (1980, 1994, 2013)
2 titles: Ivory Coast (1992, 2015), Algeria (1990, 2000), DR Congo (1968, 1974)
1 title: Senegal (2021), Zambia (2012), Tunisia (2004), South Africa (1996), Morocco (1976), Congo (1972), Sudan (1970), Ethiopia (1962)

The Predictor

On Superbru, you can predict the outcome of each and every match in the tournament and compete against your friends/family/colleagues in private leagues.

This tournament features quite an array of countries of varying quality. Senegal's opening match against Gambia is the most obvious example, as Gambia are the lowest ranked side in the tournament with a current FIFA ranking of 126 (Senegal are 20th in the world).

That said, if you look back at the results from AFCON in 2022 on the Superbru Football app, you'll see that Gambia made the quarter-finals in that tournament despite never scoring more than a single goal in each match. Based on that tournament, it might be wise to go easy on your predicted goals at the start of this one, as 9 of the 12 Round 1 games finished 1-0!

If you're already reading this on Superbru Football, simply tap the Matches tab to get going with your predictions. If you're reading on our website, click below to join the AFCON tournament.



Good luck! Feel free to let us know who you are supporting in this year's AFCON in the comments 👇🌍