Vice-captain of the Namibian national team, Ananias Gebhardt, says the team will not be drawn into the underdog’s title discussions and will be approaching Tuesday’s TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Group E opener against Tunisia with a clear plan of intent.

The lanky defender, flanked by his coach Colin Benjamin, spoke from the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo, where they are preparing to make their fourth TotalEnergies CAF AFCON appearance.

“We don’t want to get lost in that underdog discussion in this competition. There is a match to be played, and we have to approach it as such. We will concentrate on what we can do. It will not be easy. We are playing against African giants and a team that is well recognized globally and is respected”, cautioned Gebhardt.

The 35-year-old left-back, who plies his trade in South Africa’s second division, responded to CAFOnline’s question of whether the team drew any confidence in Mozambique and Cape Verde’s impressive performances against Egypt and Ghana in their respective opening matches.

With this being their fourth appearance, the Brave Warriors are yet to make it out of the group stages of the competition, and being drawn against a group consisting of two former champions in Morocco and South Africa as well as a strong Mali side; the squad will rely on experienced players such as Peter Shalulile for inspiration.

“We are blessed to have a generational player like Shalulile. The Numbers don’t lie. He’s been doing great for the past few seasons. He doesn’t have to say much, but his work in every training speaks volumes. He is very influential and is our captain. It’s great to have a player like Shalulile,” concluded the coach about their on-field leader.

Kick-off at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium on Tuesday is at 17h00

Tunisia’s head coach, Jalel Kadri, says the opening matches of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 have been an eye-opener.

Kadri compared Mozambique’s impressive performance against Egypt and Ghana’s shock defeat to Cape Verde in their opening matches.

Speaking from the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo, where the 2004 champions will face Namibia in their opening Group E match on Tuesday, Kadri said playing against Namibia in the opening match was in no way an advantage as the tournament has already shown that there are no small teams in Africa.

“Namibia is a serious opponent, and we don’t have any easy team. The results in the opening rounds have shown that there is no small team in Africa as we saw, so we need to show them respect and play to our best ability. The opening matches have shown that”, cautioned Kadri.

Tunisia is making its 21^st appearance in the competition, with this edition being the 16^th in a row – a record in the tournament’s history thus far.

An unfavorable statistic that the coach will have to discard from his mind is the fact that Tunisia has failed to win any of their last four opening matches of the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON.

On his tournament objectives, Kadri was very modest in his response, saying that the team had prepared enough to go as far as possible in the competition.

“We will try to go as far as possible. We have good quality teams, so we will try to win each match and go as far as possible. We must be respectful to all opponents. Africa’s best teams are present, so ours is to do our best in every match and take it game by game,” concluded the coach.

Kick-off at Korhogo’s Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium is at 17h00.

Check out the best photos of Matchday 2 of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 after three matches were played on Sunday.

Below are the photos:

• Algeria and Angola are facing each other for the second time at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Their only previous encounter produced a goalless draw in the group stages of the 2010 edition.

• Algeria are making their 20^th appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They will be attempting to win the trophy for the third time, after 1990 and 2019.

• Algeria’s two previous AFCON titles were won on North African soil: at home in 1990 and in Egypt in 2019.

• The only previous time Algeria reached the final outside of North Africa was in 1980, in Nigeria.

• This is Algeria’s sixth consecutive appearance at AFCON, their longest streak since qualifying for seven tournaments between 1980 and 1992.

• Algeria scored with only one of their 46 shots at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They converted 13 of their 77 shots to the title in 2019.

• This is Angola’s ninth appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They have qualified from the AFCON group stages on only two occasions (2008 and 2010, the latter as hosts) but have never won a game in the competition’s knockout phase.

• Angola are winless in their last eight AFCON matches (D4 L4), their joint-longest drought in the competition. Their last victory was their 2012 opening group match against Burkina Faso.

• Angola’s last three matches of 2023 in all competitions ended goalless (v DR Congo in October, v Cape Verde and Mauritius in November).

• Angola are unbeaten in their last five opening matches at a CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament (W1 D4). The last time they lost their first match at an AFCON edition was 2006 (1-3 v Cameroon).

• Angola has scored only two goals in their last seven AFCON matches – one of them was an own goal.

• Mohamed Amoura (3 goals) was the only Algerian player to score more than one goal in the qualifiers for this year’s tournament.

• This will be the third encounter between Cameroon and Guinea at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, all taking place in the group stages. The two previous meetings ended in draws: 2-2 in 1998 and 1-1 in 2015.

• Cameroon is making its 21st appearance in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, a tally only bettered by Egypt (26), Côte d’Ivoire (25), and Ghana (24). Egypt (7) is the only team to have won the tournament more often than The Indomitable Lions (5).

• Cameroon won the only previous AFCON to be held in Côte d’Ivoire in 1984. They beat Nigeria 3-1 in the final.

• Penalty shoot-outs excluded, Cameroon have lost only one of their last 17 matches at the Africa Cup of Nations (W8 D8), a 3-2 defeat against Nigeria in the round of 16 of the 2019 edition.

• Guinea are taking part in their 14^th CAF Africa Cup of Nations. It’s the most appearances for a team at the tournament without ever winning it – the closest they came was in 1976 when Guinea finished second to Morocco in what was then a final group stage.

• Guinea has reached the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations in six of their last seven participations but has never actually progressed in the knockout phase of the competition, either in normal/extra-time or on penalties.

• Guinea has won only two of its last 13 matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (D6 L5), a 2-0 win against Burundi in 2019 and 1-0 against Malawi in 2022.

• Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko Ekambi scored 13 of Cameroon’s 14 goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, eight and five, respectively. Aboubakar’s total was the highest in an edition of the tournament since 1974.

• Cameroon’s Rigobert Song is making his first CAF Africa Cup of Nations appearance as head coach. As a player, he featured in eight joint-record AFCON tournaments and won twice (2000 and 2002).
• Guinea’s nine goals in the qualifiers of this African Cup of Nations were scored by eight players, with Naby Keïta the only player to find the net twice.

• This will be the first encounter between Senegal and Gambia at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Excluding the CAF African Nations Championship, Senegal and Gambia last faced each other in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers; both games ended in draws (0-0; 1-1).

• Senegal is making its 17^th appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They will aim to win back-to-back AFCON tournaments for the first time since Egypt’s three in a row from 2006 to 2010, although no AFCON defending champion has progressed further than the round of 16 in the last six editions of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.

• Senegal has won their opening game in the last four CAF Africa Cup of Nations (v Ghana in 2015, v Tunisia in 2017, v Tanzania in 2019, v Zimbabwe in 2022).

• Since 2017, Senegal has kept more clean sheets than any other team in the Africa Cup of Nations (13 in 18 matches).

• This is Gambia’s second appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They reached the quarter-finals in their inaugural participation in the 2021 edition, eventually losing 2-0 to Cameroon.

• As per the last edition, Gambia was the only team to make it through the preliminary round and group stage of the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, beating Chad in the preliminaries and finishing second to Mali in the group phase.

• Despite reaching the quarter-finals in AFCON 2021, Gambia never scored more than one goal in their five matches (W3 D1 L1). All three of their victories were by a 1-0 scoreline.

• Sadio Mané has scored or assisted 48% of Senegal’s goals over the last three CAF Africa Cup of Nations (8 goals, three assists). He’s also had 97 touches in the opposition box (5.4 per game) and completed 57 dribbles (3.2 per game) since his debut in the competition in 2015, more than any other player.

• This is Aliou Cissé’s fourth consecutive CAF Africa Cup of Nations as Senegal’s head coach – under his leadership, the Lions of Teranga were quarter-finalists in 2017, beaten finalists in 2019, and champions in 2022. Senegal has also won more games (11) and kept more clean sheets (13) at AFCON than any other team during the same period.

• Musa Barrow was directly involved in all four of Gambia’s goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, scoring twice and assisting the other two.

Ghana defender Alexander Djiku put up a solid performance to win the TotalEnergies Man of the Match accolade despite his country’s 2-1 defeat to Cape Verde in their Group B opener of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Côte d’Ivoire 2023.

Djiku scored the equalizer and cleared his lines to prevent a clear goalscoring chance from Cape Verde.

His excellent performance earned him the Man of the Match award on Sunday night, and according to the defender, his side deserved more than what they got from the game.

“We deserved more from the match. We conceded the second goal when we were coming into the game, even though we were on top. We didn’t create many chances, we didn’t utilize the few chances we created, it is why we couldn’t win” Djiku said.

Defeated by the Blue Sharks, Ghana is last in Group B with zero points.

The Black Stars are already somewhat up against the wall.

“I was in the team during the last AFCON; our elimination in the first round remains the worst memory of my career, and I don’t want to relive that”

Chris Hughton’s men will have to revive against Egypt, who were held to a 2-2 draw by Mozambique.