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African Cup of Nations 2010

Group A
The host nation is Angola and they are grouped with the Republic of Mali,Algeria and Malawi. I like Angola as the host nation and Algeria to come out of the group. Angola has a couple of talented players up front that should see them through into the knock out stages of the competition.
Algeria is making a comeback into a major competition after being involved in a lot of internal conflict that saw the country drift into a civil war. They had their heydays in the early eighties, when they won this competition and qualified for the 1982 world cup in Spain. They took everybody by surprise in edging
out Egypt in the combined 2010 World cup-African cup of nations qualifiers. In case you missed it they had to play a third game, a tie-breaker against their north African foe in Sudan which they won by one goal to nil. The diplomatic relationship between the two countries went downhill after the game. Having being out of the big stage for a long time, the cup of nations would be a place for the team to show the rest of the continent if they are really good.

Group B has tournament favorites Ivory Coast, Ghana, then Togo and Burkina Faso. Ivory Coast has the most talented team in the continent and they top the list of favorites to win it all. That said, they have a habit of falling just short of the trophy and it would not come as a surprise if they end up losing in the finals or semi-finals of the competition.Runners up in the competition in 2006, that host nation
Egypt won, they started out great in the 2008 campaign in Ghana, but just flat out disappeared against Egypt in the semi-finals. They bring back just about all of their players from the 2008 competition and they should be looking at winning it all this time around.
Ghana is four times African champions and they also qualified for their second world cup campaign in a row.Their most recent continental trophy though last came in
1982, so it has been a long time since they won the competition. They had a great chance to win the last one that they hosted but fall short to Cameroon in the semi-finals. They should come out of the group stages though I do not see them going pass the semi-finals.

Group C has Egypt, Nigeria,Benin and Mozambique. Egypt and Nigeria should get out of the group stages in group C. Egypt are coming out of a disappointment on losing out to Algeria in the world cup qualifiers.They have won the last two trophies of this competition though and they adapt very well in playing throughout the continent, having won away in Burkina Faso in 1998 and in Ghana in 2008. Winning a third African Cup of nations in a row would be asking a little bit too much from them, especially with the fact that they have a couple of key injuries.
Nigeria did not have any problems qualifying for the Cup of Nations.Their problem was in qualifying for the World cup, which they did with some help from Tunisia. The country with the most talent over the years in the continent, they have two trophies to show for it. The team is deep, but judging on their current form,semi-finals is where I see them maxing out.

Group D has Tunisia,Cameroon, Gabon and Zambia.
Gabon started out their world cup qualifiers in style by beating out Morocco in Rabat and Togo in their home soil and a
lot of people though they would qualify ahead of the Republic of Cameroon. They never
did though and Cameroon ended up picking up the qualifying ticket ahead of them.Their coach is looking for some revenge against Cameroon in this group, though I do not see them going much. Cameroon and Tunisia should get out of the group.
Tunisia won the trophy in 2004 when they hosted and they have themselves to blame for losing out to Nigeria in the world cup qualifiers. They would be looking to make amends in the competition, though apart from Egypt, the countries from North Africa do not have a history of winning this competition out of their home soil. I see them making it to the quarterfinals stage of the competition.
Cameroon started out slow in their world cup qualifiers and they had to make some changes in the middle of the qualifying campaign to get themselves going. They brought in French man Paul Le Guen who worked some miracles and the team did not miss out on a second world cup. This is the African cup of nations thought and Cameroon has a very good record in the competition, having won four times and being runners-up twice. The team has some talent up front, plays good defense. They have a good goalkeeper, though not in the tradition of some great ones that they have hard in the past. In the years that the team has won this competition , they have had great talent in defense, midfield, and attack. Creativity in the midfield is missing in this team and the defense goes into lapse at times that cost them goals.It would not come as a surprise if they win the competition,but I do not feel going in that they have the current form and confidence to win their fifth trophy.Semi-finals or finals would not be out of the question.

So for the semi-finals, I am looking at Ivory Coast, Angola, Cameroon and Nigeria. And for the champions, my money is on Ivory Coast.