There are four groups where all 16 teams will feature with Group A including host Rwanda, Gabon, Morocco and Cote d’Ivoire. Group B has Congo, Angola, Cameroon and Ethiopia. Group C includes Tunisia, Nigeria, Guinea and Niger while Group D has Zimbabwe, Mali, Uganda and Zambia.
The defending champions are Libya who failed to qualify for the finals of the competition and no host nation has won the competition since its inception. This would be the second time Rwanda will feature in the competition and would hope to scale the hurdle of being in the final of this edition.
The strengths of the various domestic leagues in the continent will be a strong factor that would swing the fortunes of teams to make new milestones in the tournament as the North African teams, Congo and even Nigeria have the brightest chances of making it to the final as they come into the competition with a strong pedigree and remain tournament favourites.
Rwanda as hosts have a herculean tasks of making history of winning the trophy but must look beyond home support to qualify from a very tough group that features Morocco who beat defending champions Libya home and away, Morocco and Gabon.
The Moroccans are likely favourites to emerge from the group with the Ivorians while the Gabonese will hope that the recent emergence of their son, Pierre Emenick as Africa’s best footballer will spur the team to glory in the tournament.
With a strong league that has featured strong teams like Raja Casablanca of Morocco consistently and the Royal Armed Forces team and a sparkling qualification series, the North Africans are tipped not only to win the group but go as far as the final while the the chances of any major upset will lie with the home team to step up their game and justify their new ratings of being among the top teams on the continent.
The battle of Group B will likely be between Congo and Cameroon with the Angolans having an outside chance to pick runners up slot. The Congolese have a strong league with the likes of TP Mazembe holding the forte on the continent in recent years to become one of Africa’s biggest sides winning major continental trophies with most of their players in the squad at this tournament.
For the Cameroonian side, the glory days of the Indomitable Lions may have waned but the strengths of the team has always been on physical approach to their games and will rely on the new generation of players that may emulate their heroes in the likes of Samuel Eto, Patrick Mboma to push the side to achieve success in Rwanda.
For Nigeria, the challenge of Group C will be no stroll in the park as they face a very strong Tunisian side that have been tagged the group favourites along a very tricky Guinean side while hoping that the challenge posed by the Niger Team will be overcome.
For Sunday Oliseh, the coach of the Senior National Team, this tournament is litmus test on his technical content as he battles with the drive to transform our football and the present challenge from the home based Eagles poses the stiffest test to his career as the gaffer.
Playing on the continent is a s rugged terrain as the approach is more of physical in achieving the set targets and after months of extensive camping which took the team to South Africa were friendly games were played, the Coach has declared his team ready to win the competition after not losing any match in the pre-tournament warm up games.
This will be the Eagles second appearance and they will hope to better their bronze medal win from the previous edition to make an impressive appearance. Any hope of a semi final ticket will be determined by how focused they can be to get past a very technical Tunisian side that remains another tournament favourite with most of their players featuring prominently on the continental fixtures for their various clubs.
The Tunisian side will feature players from Etoile D Sahel a major club on the continent while the Guineans from West Africa may likely be the spoil sport as they have been under rated by football pundits in assessing the strengths of the group so far.
For Group D, it will surely be a straight fight for a knockout ticket for Mali and Zambia as the two teams on paper are outstanding with some of the best players in their various leagues.
For Nigeria, the team arrived Kigali on Friday from South Africa and held their first training session that evening as the High Commissioner of the country Ferdinand Nwoye visited the team and hopes that the first fixture against the Mena of Niger on Monday at the Stade Regional de Nyamirambo will be an outright victory. The Eagles will play Tunisia who were champions of the second edition held in Sudan five years ago at the same venue on Friday, January 22, 2016 while they hope to seal qualification into the knockout stage with their last group match against Guinea on Tuesday, January 26,2016 at the Rubavu Stadium at Gisenyi.
At their maiden appearance in 2014, the Eagles lost to Mali 2-1 in the opening match in Cape Town, before defeating Mozambique 4-0 and then thrashing South Africa 3-1 to reach the quarter finals. They came back from a goal down to defeat Morocco 4-3 on penalties but lost also on penalties to the Black Stars of Ghana and defeated Zimbabwe 1-0 in the third place match to win the bronze.
The test of the team in Rwanda will be without our brightest start in the league Gbolahan Salami who has opted out of the team to pursue his career with a foreign club and Chima Akass makes a bold replacement to lead the team to success in the east African country.
Most of the Eagles have garnered the exposure and experience to excel with the national team as they have on several occasions been invited for camping exercises with their foreign based counterparts and the opportunity to interpret the vision and plans of the coach must come to bear as the competition changes gear at each fixture.
Coach Sunday Oliseh must further realise that there will be no excuses if the team fails to reach the final as that would be a strong improvement and an indication that the bar of success can be achieved as this will also enhance his technical content on the team while giving Nigerians more hope that he will conquer the Egyptians in the next two months during the double header World Cup 2018 qualifiers.
While there may be no clear cut favourites to lift the trophy at Rwanda, it is very certain that domestic flair of our continent’s football will be on display as the scouts will surely swarm over the venues and the players realise that this lifetime opportunity that beckons on them opens a window of new fortunes to get to the big stage in Europe and be the next generation of talents out of Africa to set the global stage with new creativity on the pitch.
It also a commendable policy by the Isa Hayatou led football administration on the continent to give these players a platform to excel and we believe that each edition will be a bigger stage to project African football as the new destination for bigger talents and the new bundle were creativity lies. Let’s celebrate our football culture.
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