The biggest soccer tournament in Africa began on January 13th as 24 nations began battling for the title of best team on the continent. The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) runs through February 11th and consists of African national teams. The games, which are all being played in Ivory Coast, all fall under the banner of the Confederation of African Soccer.
The tournament is set up similarly to the World Cup where a large number of teams attempt to qualify for the tournament. For the AFCON tourney, 54 teams seek spots but only 24 make it to the tournament itself. From there, the teams are split into 6 groups with 4 teams in each group. This is followed by the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and then the championship final.
Coming into the tournament, the top teams were Egypt and Senegal, who went face-to-face in the AFCON finals in 2022 where Senegal beat Egypt in penalties after the score was tied at the end of regulation and extra time. The other two top teams this year are Burkina Faso and Cameroon, which happen to be the other two teams that made it to the semifinals in AFCON 2022.
The group stage has just been completed. The top two teams in each group include: Group A – Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea; Group B – Cape Verde and Egypt; Group C – Senegal and Cameroon; Group D – Angola and Burkina Faso; Group E – Mali and South Africa; Group F – Morocco and DR Congo. One of the biggest surprises in the group stage was Angola being undefeated (2 wins and a draw) and at the top of their group after not qualifying for AFCON 2022. Other surprising results included Mali winning their group and the DR Congo and South Africa finishing second in their groups and advancing as none of them qualified in 2022.
The knockout stage has begun and, surprisingly, fan favorite and previous title winner Senegal was knocked out by the host country. This is surprising because Ivory Coast scarcely made it into the knockout stage with two losses in the Group Stage. Another sort of surprise is Angola, which shut out Namibia 3-0, and will now play Nigeria, which beat Cameroon 2-0, in the quarterfinals. Cape Verde has also advanced to the quarterfinals as has Guinea, which defeated Equatorial Guinea. Guinea will now play the Democratic Republic of Congo, which beat Egypt on penalties, in the quarterfinals. The next big knockout round matches include Mali against Burkina Faso and Morocco versus South Africa; both are matches not to miss.
