Cote d’Ivoire v Guinea Bissau

The 34th edition of the TotalEnergies CAF African Cup of Nations kicks off on Saturday, with hosts Cote d’Ivoire taking on Guinea Bissau.

CafOnline.com looks at some interesting facts and figures of the two sides ahead of the tricky match.

• This will be the first encounter between Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.
• Côte d’Ivoire is participating in its 25^th CAF Africa Cup of Nations; only Egypt has appeared more in the continent’s premier competition (26). They will attempt to win the trophy for the third time, after 1992 and 2015.
• Côte d’Ivoire is hosting the CAF Africa Cup of Nations for the second time, 40 years after being held in the country in 1984. Cameroon won the title, while Côte d’Ivoire was knocked out in the group stages.
• The hosts/co-hosts of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations have systematically reached the knockout stages of the tournament in all but one of the last 14 editions – the exception was Gabon in 2017. However, no host has won the AFCON since Egypt in 2006.
• Côte d’Ivoire are unbeaten in their last 12 opening matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (W7 D5) – the last time they lost their first match in an edition of the tournament was in 1996 (0-2 v Ghana). Their opening match will be their 100^th in the AFCON, becoming the third team to reach that tally after Egypt and Ghana.
• This is Guinea-Bissau’s fourth Africa Cup of Nations appearance after making their debut in the competition only six years ago in 2017. They have finished at the bottom of their group in their three previous participations, with three draws and six defeats.
• Only Benin (14) and Mozambique (12) have played more matches than Guinea-Bissau (9) at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations without ever winning one.
• Guinea-Bissau have failed to score in their last seven matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, a record for any team in the competition’s history. It’s been over 11 hours since they last found the net (707 minutes), a goal by Piqueti against Cameroon on 18 January 2017.
• If Max Gradel plays, this will be his seventh CAF Africa Cup of Nations, equaling Boubacar Barry, Siaka Tiéné, and Kolo Touré as the Ivorians with the most AFCON appearances. He was part of the winning squad in 2015.
• The duo of Zinho Gano and Jorginho scored 55% of Guinea-Bissau’s goals in the qualifiers for the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (3 goals each, out of a total of 11 team goals).