The AFCON 2022’s main tournament is just a few short months away. This is a great time to catch up on the Africa Cup of Nations fixtures!
Africa Cup of Nations Fixtures
Out of the 12 groups in the qualifiers, the winner and runner-up of each group moved to this stage.
The first stage of the AFCON 2022 tournament will be a group stage, with 6 groups of 4 teams. All of the first-place and second-place teams will move onto the next round.
The third-place teams will be ranked against each other. The four teams with the highest points will move to the next round.
Here is what we think of the Africa Cup of Nations fixtures for 2022.
Group A
In Group A, the hosts, Cameroon, have a good shot at getting first place. Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, while being moderately decent teams, are not quite on the same level.
Group B
Group B promises to be a competitive one. Senegal is a favourite here but the Zimbabwe team is also fairly highly regarded.
Group C
Our favourites, Ghana, are in group C. It also has Morocco, who showed an incredibly strong standing in the qualifiers. Those two teams going head-to-head will definitely be exciting to bet on.
This group also has Comoros, who are debuting in the AFCON. Since this is their first time, we expect they will do their best to showcase their talent.
Group D
Group D has two fan favourites: Nigeria and Egypt. These two teams have claimed several AFCON championship titles before, so it will be interesting to wager on them.
Group E
Group E is home to Algeria, the defending Champions. They are going up against Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast. We don’t expect Algeria to get dethroned at this stage.
Group F
In Group F, Tunisia is a clear favourite. Plus, Gambia is the second team newly debuting in the AFCON. They won their group stage by a narrow margin, so this is their opportunity to show off how far they have come.
Sierra Leone
Sao Tome and Principe
Madagascar
Central African Republic
Zambia
Lesotho
Congo
South Sudan
Ghana
Angola
Gabon
Sudan
Algeria
Niger
Uganda
Tanzania
DR Congo
Mauritania
Africa Cup of Nations Fixtures FAQs
In 2019, the AFCON results were quite surprising. Algeria won AFCON 2019, claiming the trophy for the first time in nearly 30 years. The last time Algeria won the cup was in 1990.
The runner up was Senegal. This is also their second time as the runner up, as they were in this position back in 2002.
The third place and fourth place went to Nigeria and Tunisia respectively. One team that was surprisingly missing was Ghana, despite a good showing previously. They had reached the semi-finals for the previous 6 tournaments but failed to do so in 2019.
The only AFCON 2021 to take place was the U-20 tournament. The main tournament was rescheduled to 2022. In the 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, the champions were Ghana. This was their fourth title in U-20 tournaments.
The runner up was Uganda. In third place was the Gambia, while Tunisia came in fourth place.
There will be a total of 24 teams playing in the main stage of the Africa Cup of Nations fixtures.
Cameroon will be playing as the hosts. The rest of the qualifying teams are, in alphabetical order: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Comoros, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
Out of these teams, Comoros and Gambia are debuting in the AFCON. All the other teams have played at least once before.
At the highest levels of the competition, it is tough to tell which team has the highest chances of winning. The favourites are Algeria, champions of 2019, or Cameroon, champions of 2017.
Some other favourites include Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco and Nigeria. Each of these teams performed really well in the qualifiers and has a good shot. The outcome could easily depend on the Africa Cup of Nations fixtures and their matchups.
