Soccer Football - Africa Cup of Nations - Guinea-Bissau Press Conference - Abidjan, Ivory Coast - January 12, 2024 Guinea-Bissau coach Baciro Cande during the press conference REUTERS/Luc Gnago
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Guinea Bissau take on hosts Ivory Coast in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations opener and are among a handful of participating teams still to win a game at the finals but coach Baciro Cande is confident they can claim a breakthrough.
Guinea Bissau have overcome their poor sporting infrastructure and lowly ranking by building a team almost exclusively from players in the diaspora in Europe. They have qualified for the last four successive finals.
But while they pulled off a shock 1-1 draw with hosts Gabon in the opening match of the 2017 edition, they remain winless in a total of nine games at the last three editions. They are yet to make it past the first round and are one of four teams at the tournament yet to win a game at the finals.
"We find ourselves in a very tough group, a group of death, up against some very tough teams," Cande said of their Group A opponents, which also include Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria.
"The Ivorians play at a high level with players in the top leagues in Europe. It’s a big team from a big country. Nigeria are strong too and we also saw what Equatorial Guinea did at the last tournament."
Equatorial Guinea, whose population of 1.6 million is smaller than Guinea Bissau’s 2 million, reached the quarter-finals of the last tournament in Cameroon, upsetting holders Algeria along the way.
"But we have a confident team playing in a fourth successive tournament and because of the group there is little pressure on us," Cande told a press conference on Friday. "So we can look forward to trying to get the best results we can."
Mozambique have played at four previous tournaments, the last of which was in 2010. Their 12 previous matches in the final have delivered two draws and 10 defeats and a total of four goals.
Namibia are returning for a fourth tournament after previous appearances in 1998, 2008 and 2019, where they drew twice, but lost the other seven games.
It is the third tournament for Tanzania, who have a solitary point from their six games at the finals.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Toby Davis)
