Fast-improving Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, who have qualified for a fourth straight edition, complete the mini-league.<\/p>\n
Other heavyweight pairings included defending champions Senegal with five-time winners Cameroon, while Africa’s first World Cup semi-finalists Morocco face the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n
Ivory Coast, seeking a third Cup of Nations title, will meet Guinea-Bissau in the opening match on January 13 in Abidjan, the economic hub.<\/p>\n
The Ivorian clash with three-time champions Nigeria will attract most attention among the six Group A fixtures.<\/p>\n
Nigeria were last crowned Cup of Nations winners in 2013 in South Africa and the Ivory Coast succeeded them two years later in Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n
Morocco were drawn in Group F with DR Congo, Zambia and Tanzania.<\/p>\n
The Atlas Lions have won the premier African football competition only once, in 1976. Their best performance since then was finishing runners-up to 2004 hosts Tunisia.<\/p>\n
Defending champions Senegal are in Group C with five-time winners Cameroon, Guinea and the Gambia.<\/p>\n
South Africa will face Tunisia, Mali and Namibia in Group E while Ghana take on Egypt, Cape Verde and Mozambique in Group B.<\/p>\n
Group D, comprising Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Angola, completes the line-up for a tournament that will reach a climax with the final on February 11.<\/p>\n
Senegalese-American singer Akon hosted the draw, assisted by current and former African stars Sadio Mane, Achraf Hakimi, Didier Drogba and Mikel John Obi.<\/p>\n
Ivory Coast are hosting the premier African sport event for a second time, and hoping for much better results than in 1984.<\/p>\n
Early elimination
\nThen, the Elephants began with a convincing victory over Togo, but losses to Egypt and eventual champions Cameroon meant elimination after the first round.<\/p>\n
It was the only time in nine hostings of the Cup of Nations in west Africa that the home country failed to reach the knockout stage.<\/p>\n
Just eight nations featured in that edition — a third of the number who will arrive in the west African country for the next edition.<\/p>\n
The tournament should have taken place already as it was originally scheduled for June and July this year.<\/p>\n
But had it gone ahead, matches would have been staged during the rainy season and CAF president Patrice Motsepe said “it was too great a risk to play matches in potential downpours”.<\/p>\n
He admitted moving the two-yearly tournament to January and February was “not ideal as it clashes with the European club season”.<\/p>\n
This means stars like Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Victor Osimhen of Napoli could be absent from their clubs for five weeks, depending on how record seven-time champions Egypt and Nigeria fare.<\/p>\n
Ivory Coast will stage the Cup of Nations at six stadiums — two in Abidjan and one each in Bouake, administrative capital Yamoussoukro, Korhogo and San Pedro.<\/p>\n
Friendly fixtures meant many coaches, including Aliou Cisse of Senegal and Rigobert Song of Cameroon, were unable to attend the draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hosts Ivory Coast were joined in Group A by Nigeria in the draw for the Africa Cup of Nations in Abidjan on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":34311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-34314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n