AFCON 2013 Group D

AFCON 2013 Group D.

The favourites Ivory Coast will be pitted against Tunisia, Togo and Algeria in this exciting group. 

Drogba’s Ivory Coast should be in formidable form after a shock defeat by Zambia on penalties in last year’s African Nations final (2012).  Their keeper Boubacar Barry admitted to not knowing where they had gone wrong in the final and maybe expectations took their toll. But let’s not expect anything less than a demolition squad this time around as I expect the Ivorian’s will be looking to crash anyone who stands in their way to lifting the most prestigious trophy on the continent.

We can look forward to seeing Yaya and Kolo Toure, Emanuel Eboue and Gevinho to mention just a few. This is a team with a lot of players we recognise and will be the best to watch by far.

The Opposition

Tunisia: 

These guys won the cup in 2004 and they will be telling themselves that they can challenge. They came pretty close the last time they were in South Africa. They are fast and dangerous and have a lot of experience in the tournament so they have big expectations.

Can they take on the Elephants you ask? Sure they can and they will give it a good go but the most realistic outcome would be to come second to Ivory Coast in the group.

Algeria:

Known as the Desert Warriors, these guys can lay claim to Zinedine Zidane so if they can show even a quarter of the legends prowess, they will be in with a chance to progress through the group. Sofiane Feghouli is a player we have been told to lookout for. He is supposed to be fast and has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. He decided to play for Algeria even though he had played for the French national youth squad.

Togo:

The guys are back in the tournament after missing last year. They were left traumatised after the Angola hosted Nations Cup where their squad Bus was attached by rebels losing members of their team.  We can expect Emmanuel’s presence in the squad to have lifted many a fans spirit having score 26 from 56 appearances for Togo.

Needless to say, we can look forward to seeing some good matches from this group. The over qualified Elephants will be formidable in the group and bear in mind when you are watching them that they could be the Champions. They are my pick for the Tournament.