Unfortunately, with 24 teams - 16 of which qualify to the knockout, and wide quality gaps, the group stage is set a little bit like a pre-season.
8 teams will not continue past the group stage, these will probably be the six teams from pot 4 of the draw (Sudan, Malawi, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and Gambia), and two teams from the second worst echelon - I'd bet on two from Mauritania, Gabon, Sierra Leone, or Guinea-Bissau.
There are not many interesting matches in the group stage. Let's ask ourselves honestly how many CAF WC qualifiers we've watched - South Africa v. Ghana were good clashes, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire were fantastic. Burkina Faso gave Algeria a scare, so did Cape Verde to Nigeria. But that was basically it. The WC qualifying playoff round will be phenomenal (can't wait for the draw on 1/22!), but the group stage was not that interesting.
So, the AFCON group stage matches I've marked (other than the opener) are Morocco-Ghana (tomorrow, 1/10, 11AM ET), Nigeria-Egypt (Tuesday, 1/11, 11AM ET), Algeria-Cote d'Ivoire (1/20, 11AM) and maybe Tunisia-Mali (Wednesday, 1/12, 8AM ET). Other than that, I'm afraid that any chance of an upset is like Nottingham Forest beating mighty-whitey Arsenal in the cup. Inconceivable!
I'm waiting for the real AFCON to begin 2 weeks from now, when the knockout stage begins. Until then I'll watch (of course I will), but under protest and through a yawn.
Unfortunately, with 24 teams - 16 of which qualify to the knockout, and wide quality gaps, the group stage is set a little bit like a pre-season.
8 teams will not continue past the group stage, these will probably be the six teams from pot 4 of the draw (Sudan, Malawi, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and Gambia), and two teams from the second worst echelon - I'd bet on two from Mauritania, Gabon, Sierra Leone, or Guinea-Bissau.
There are not many interesting matches in the group stage. Let's ask ourselves honestly how many CAF WC qualifiers we've watched - South Africa v. Ghana were good clashes, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire were fantastic. Burkina Faso gave Algeria a scare, so did Cape Verde to Nigeria. But that was basically it. The WC qualifying playoff round will be phenomenal (can't wait for the draw on 1/22!), but the group stage was not that interesting.
So, the AFCON group stage matches I've marked (other than the opener) are Morocco-Ghana (tomorrow, 1/10, 11AM ET), Nigeria-Egypt (Tuesday, 1/11, 11AM ET), Algeria-Cote d'Ivoire (1/20, 11AM) and maybe Tunisia-Mali (Wednesday, 1/12, 8AM ET). Other than that, I'm afraid that any chance of an upset is like Nottingham Forest beating mighty-whitey Arsenal in the cup. Inconceivable!
I'm waiting for the real AFCON to begin 2 weeks from now, when the knockout stage begins. Until then I'll watch (of course I will), but under protest and through a yawn.