AFCON Group C: Elephants loom large in stacked quartet
With the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations set to kick off Jan. 14 in Gabon, 16 nations will vie for continental honours. Here, we preview Group C, a daunting section that features the tournament's reigning champion.
Check out the previews for Groups A & B below:
Ivory Coast
Profile: The defending champ arrives in Gabon on the heels of its second continental conquest, though it will be anything but a sub-Saharan stroll for Les Elephants.
Michel Dussuyer will hope that his star-studded squad does enough to see off fellow Group C studs DR Congo and Morocco as the Ivory Coast looks to qualify for the knockout phase for a seventh successive time, boosted by a roster littered with notable names.
Dussuyer and Co. should advance to the last eight with a near-certain victory over Togo paired with decent results against DR Congo and Morocco, though there are no guarantees in a group of this ilk.
First-choice shot-stopper Sylvain Gbohouo won Best Goalkeeper at AFCON 2015, while Serge Aurier, Max Gradel, and Wilfried Bony - all part of the 2017 squad - were named to the Team of the Tournament. The Toure brothers (Kolo and Yaya), meanwhile, are long gone, as is pacey winger Gervinho)
Key Player: Not necessarily the Ivory Coast's best player, Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha arrives in Gabon with the most to prove. After failing to crack England's senior side, Zaha made the Ivorian switch despite the insistence of Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate.
A player who performs best on the edge, Zaha will use his marauding pace in support of traditional forwards Bony, Giovanni Sio, and Salomon Kalou to form a lethal Ivorian attack. Atalanta's highly coveted midfielder Franck Kessie will also be one to watch.
Trivia: In 2009, Ivorian cocoa-bean farmers earned $2.53 billion for cocoa exports.
Democratic Republic of Congo
Profile: Twenty-three years removed from its second - and last - AFCON triumph, DR Congo enters the 2017 installment after getting booted at the semi-final stage by the Ivory Coast in 2015. The Leopards ended up finishing third after beating Equatorial Guinea on penalties.
Florent Ibenge's squad is heavy on the attack with Dieumerci Mbokani and Cedric Bakambu, though it's hard to overlook the long-term injury to Yannick Bolasie when considering the central African nation's chances.
While Bolasie's injury was a massive blow, Ibenge's lot will look at its 2015 display as a source of hope. The Leopards' ambitions are made more challenging by their draw, though AFCON is where the peculiar happens. Newcastle defender Chancel Mbemba will be part of a back four that also features Northampton Town's Gabriel Zakuani, while tough-tackling Norwich City midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu will captain the squad.
Key Player: With Bolasie out, the Leopards will go as far as their forwards take them, and luckily for Ibenge, Hull striker Mbokani is more proficient scoring on the international stage than he is at navigating the perils of roller coasters.
The 31-year-old Kinshasa-born aerial wizard is the nation's all-time leading scorer - bagging a respectable 18 goals in 36 appearances for country - and with Bournemouth's Benik Afobe set to miss out, Mbokani is likely to form a vital partnership with Bakambu.
Like the Ivorian Zaha, Bakambu has a lot to prove in Gabon. After a stellar 2015-16 pairing with Roberto Soldado for the Yellow Submarine - during which the two combined for 17 goals and 13 assists in the league - the Sochaux product has slid down Villarreal's depth chart this season, courtesy of the exploits of Pato and Nicola Sansone.
Trivia: With a population exceeding 80 million, DR Congo is the most populated Francophone country in the world.
Morocco
Profile: After a year bossing the Ivory Coast, former Lille gaffer Herve Renard will manage Morocco hoping to share some insight from his spell leading Les Elephants to continental glory.
The 1976 winner has failed to advance beyond the group stage in its last four AFCONs, and with a slew of absentees, the Atlas Lions' hopes aren't what they were weeks ago when Group C appeared a three-headed monster.
While Morocco enjoyed a near-spotless qualifying run - with five losses and just a lone defeat - victories over Cape Verde, Libya, and Sao Tome mean little now ahead of the unenviable task of matches against the Ivory Coast and DR Congo.
Key Player: With Nice stud Younes Belhanda, Saint-Etienne forward Oussama Tannane, Watford winger Nordin Amrabat, and Southampton attacker Sofiane Boufal all sidelined with injury, while Ajax's Hakim Ziyech was left out, Renard's cupboard appears unacceptably bare.
As a result, much of the pressure will fall squarely on the shoulders of Juventus centre-half and Morocco captain Medhi Benatia. He and Monaco's Nabil Dirar will be tasked with shoring up the back line as the Atlas Lions look to nick a few narrow results in hopes of advancing to the knockout stage. Also look for Youssef El-Arabi, who led Morocco in scoring during qualifiers, and Nancy youngster Youssef Ait Bennasser, to play contributing roles.
Trivia: Morocco is the only African country to have both an Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline.
Togo
Profile: With Togo's chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup now shot after bottling a two-legged clash with Uganda 4-0, Claude Leroy's lot arrive in Gabon by the slimmest of margins sporting a case of Deja Vu.
Having failed to qualify for AFCON 2015, Togo will recall the 2013 installment, where Les Eperviers lost their group stage opener to the Ivory Coast 2-1, before advancing to the quarter-finals where they lost in extra time to Burkina Faso.
While AFCON is traditionally a bedfellow with all things unexpected, coming out of this group will be a tough ask for Leroy's boys.
Key Player: Like Zaha and Bakambu, Togo is led by a player with plenty to prove in Emmanuel Adebayor. Unattached since leaving Crystal Palace, Adebayor, 32, is the country's most-capped player (73), its highest scorer (30) and one of two players on the 23-man roster without a club (GK Kossi Agassa). Whether or not the Metz academy product is in form remains to be seen, though the 2008 African Player of the Year is certain to provide entertainment even if Togo bows out at the group stage for the seventh time in eight attempts.
Trivia: In 2008, Benjamin Boukpeti became the first Togolese athlete to win an Olympic medal when he took home bronze in the Men's K1 Kayak Slalom in Beijing.