Following a drama-filled Saturday matches the Africa Cup of Nations is expected to continue with high-octane matches lined up in Group E and FMorocco vs DR Congo Africa Cup of Nations favorites Morocco will look to take a huge step toward the knockout stages of the competition when they take on DR Congo at Stade Laurent Pokou on Sunday at 5.00 PM EAT.While Morocco have won the competition only once in their history, in 1976, and made the final on one other occasion in 2004, they currently boast arguably the best squad in the tournament.With that, though, coupled with a historic fourth-placed finish at the World Cup in Qatar, comes tremendous expectancy, but the Atlas Lions lived up to those expectations in their opener match when they secured a convincing 3-0 win over group outsiders Tanzania.AFCON 2023 UPDATESKenya’s Peter Waweru will be the centre referee for today’s AFCON match between Morocco vs DRC Congo.The 39-year-old Waweru is a Professor of Pure Mathematics at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.Congratulations Prof!Kenya is proud! pic.twitter.com/aIh8Yv8Lxw— Fred Arocho (@fred_arocho) January 21, 2024 Walid Regragui’s side have started games particularly well and have led at the break in each of their last four matches while scoring 12 goals in their last five games.While Morocco heads into this match as the out-and-out favorites, history shows that the Leopards have fared well against the Atlas Lions in the AFCON competition and should not be written off just yet.These two have met in the Africa Cup of Nations five times in the past and have shared one win apiece, while the remaining three matches ended level. Only Egypt and Nigeria have faced off in more AFCON group stage matches (7) than Morocco and DR Congo.The Leopards came into this competition as the second favorite to qualify from this group behind Morocco, and they would likely have been fairly disappointed with only taking one point from Zambia in their first match.Sebastien Desabre’s side, having won the AFCON twice before, comes into this game as the more successful side in the competition, but things have changed drastically in recent years, and they will need to be at their best to stand a chance against the mighty Moroccans.##NAJAVA_MECA_7812004##Zambia vs TanzaniaZambia and Tanzania meet in a must-win CAF Africa Cup of Nations clash on Sunday at 8.00 PM EAT at the Laurent Pokou Stadium with both sides seeking their first victory of the competition.Zambia held DR Congo to a 1-1 draw in their opening clash while the Taifa Stars of Tanzania suffered a 3-0 defeat to Morocco.All eyes will be on Hemed Suleiman who will take up the reins from Adel Amrouche following his suspension when they face the 2012 champions who looked like a well-oiled machine against DR Congo last week.AFCON2023: Battle of Eagles starts spectacularly but ends in lowkey drawThe Taifa Stars are yet to make it out of the group stages of the competition, with this edition marking their third appearance as compared to Zambia’s 18th showing.Led by the highly experienced Avram Grant, Chipolopolo will be looking at carrying on from their impressive outing against DR Congo.Zambia Coach Grant says he approaches the match wanting to win to progress to the knockout stages“The most important thing in football is the next match. We started well against DR Congo but the focus now is Tanzania and we’re focusing on that. This meeting is important because we want to win to increase our chances of qualifying for the next round. We have our style of play. We want to move forward, and score goals every time. The Tanzania team is very solid. We will have to expect a complicated match.”His Taifa Stars counterpart Suleiman says they have worked their problems and are ready to take head on the Chipolopolo while acknowledging the heavy task placed on him.“After the match against Morocco, we prepared our team mentally and physically. We have also resolved our problems and we are ready to play Zambia. It’s a great team with good players but we have objectives for this tournament too. It’s a big responsibility for me to be here. But that’s normal too. The head coach could have had a red card so I have always had to be prepared for such situations.”
South Africa Vs Namibia The final match of the day will be staged at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium at 11.00 PM EAT when South Africa takes on neighbors Namibia looking to earn their first points in the Africa Cup of Nations.While it is still only matchday two in the competition, Bafana Bafana will have to treat this as a knockout encounter, while the Brave Warriors can book their place in the next round with a win.Speaking ahead of the match South Africa head coach Hugo Broos said they cannot afford to make the same mistakes and that they were anticipating a tough match against a side that has most of its players plying their trade in South Africa.“We were very disappointed after the defeat against Mali because we didn’t play a bad game. We know it will be difficult with Namibian players playing in South Africa. The only thing that we cannot do is to repeat the same mistakes that we made with Mali. We can play a good match in both the first and second half”, said a motivated Broos.A defeat for Broos’s side would likely see them on the brink of elimination from the tournament, but it is worth noting that they have not suffered a loss against Namibia since 1998.Furthermore, history is on Bafana Bafana’s side, though, as the 1996 AFCON champions have never lost their first two games in succession at an AFCON competition since 2008.The duo has faced each other two times in the competition with Bafana Bafana winning all the previous matchups.Collin Benjamin’s Brave Warriors, now unbeaten in their last three matches in all competitions and having maintained five clean sheets in six games won’t be taking prisoners when they face the noisy neighbors.AFCON 2023- GROUP STAGERound 2ThursdayEquatorial Guinea – Guinea Bissau 4-2 (1-1)/Nsue 21, 51, 61, Miranda 46 – Orosco 37, Ze Turbo 90+3/Ivory Coast – Nigeria 0-1 (0-0)/Troost-Ekong 54 pen/Egypt – Ghana 2-2 (0-1)/Marmoush 69, M. Mohamed 74 – Kudus 45+3, 71/FridayCape Verde – Mozambique 3-0 (1-0)/Bebe 32, Ryan Mendes 51, Kevin Pina 69/Senegal – Cameroon 3-1 (1-0)/I. Sarr 16, H. Diallo 71, Mane 90+5 – Castelletto 83/Guinea – Gambia 1-0 (0-0)/A. Camara 69/SaturdayAlgeria – Burkina Faso 2-2 (0-1)/B. Bounedjah 51,90+5- M. Konate 45+3, B. Traore 71/Mauritania-Angola 2-3 (1-1)/Bouna 43, Koita 58 – Dala 30,50, Gilberto 53/Tunisia – Mali 1-1 (1-1)/Rafia 20 – Sinayoko 10/Sunday17:00: (1.58) Morocco (3.70) DR Congo (6.75)20:00: (2.30) Zambia (3.15) Tanzania (3.35)23:00: (2.00) S.Africa (3.30) Namibia (4.00)***odds are subject to change***