Senegal begin their quest for a first-ever Africa Cup of Nations title by taking on Zimbabwe at the Kouekong Stadium on Monday.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe will be looking to upset the odds and open their continental campaign with a victory against more illustrious opponents.
Match preview
© Reuters
Senegal suffered the disappointment of losing back to back finals when they fell to South Africa at the last hurdle of the COSAFA Cup.
Aliou Cisse's men, who were also narrowly beaten by Algeria in the AFCON final three years ago, responded superbly once again by winning five of their six World Cup qualifiers to book a place in March's playoffs.
In the meantime, the Lions of Teranga go in search of continental supremacy and will be looking to make a statement of intent in their opening fixture.
Standing in the way is an opposing side who have lost each of the three previous meetings between the teams by a combined score of 5-1.
The west Africans follows up Monday's game with a clash versus Guinea in matchday two before rounding off the group stage against Malawi.
Off the back of 12 games without a victory, the start of the AFCON could not have come at a worse time for Zimbabwe.
However, Norman Mapeza did see his side play out a goalless draw versus Sudan on Sunday when they picked up their first clean sheet in six outings.
The Warriors now prepare for a baptism of fire against one of the competition's favourites as they aim to avoid a third consecutive group-stage exit.
Both of the previous two tournaments kicked off on a losing note for the southern Africans who will need to be near-perfect to stand any chance of avoiding defeat in this one.
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
- L
- L
- D
- D
Team News
A few days after squaring off in a pulsating 2-2 draw between Liverpool and Chelsea, Sadio Mane and Edouard Mendy have joined up with the rest of the squad in Cameroon.
However, the aforementioned Mendy as well as Pape Sarr, Nampalys Mendy and Mame Thiam are all unavailable having tested positive for coronavirus.
Khama Billiat recently announced his retirement from international football after 17 goals in 43 matches for Zimbabwe since making his debut in 2011.
Aston Villa midfielder Marvelous Nakamba underwent surgery last month, and the 27-year-old is ruled out of this year's AFCON.
Senegal possible starting lineup:
Gomis; Sarr, Koulibaly, Diallo, Ciss; Kouyate, Gueye; Sarr, Mane, Dia; Diedhiou
Zimbabwe possible starting lineup:
Mhari; Chimwemwe, Mudimu, Takwara, Kangwa; Musona, Madzongwe, Hadebe, Mahachi; Kadewere, Moyo
We say: Senegal 2-0 Zimbabwe
Senegal boast a plethora of quality players all over the field and will fancy themselves to get the better of Zimbabwe. We expect them to get the job done in relatively comfortable fashion come the end of the 90 minutes.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Senegal win with a probability of 67.76%. A draw had a probability of 21.8% and a win for Zimbabwe had a probability of 10.41%.
The most likely scoreline for a Senegal win was 1-0 with a probability of 17.77%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (15.75%) and 3-0 (9.31%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 0-0 (10.02%), while for a Zimbabwe win it was 0-1 (5.29%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 17.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Senegal in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for Senegal.
Eq Guinea
Nigeria
Ivory Coast
Guinea-Bissau
Cape Verde
Egypt
Ghana
Mozambique
Senegal
Guinea
Cameroon
Gambia
Angola
Burkina Faso
Mauritania
Algeria
Mali
South Africa
Namibia
Tunisia
Morocco
Congo DR
Tanzania
Zambia
