Nigeria to face Egypt, as AFCON draws kick-off in Yaounde

Draws for the group stages of the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) competition have commenced in Cameroun with three-time defending champions, Super Eagles of Nigeria drawn in a group comprising; Egypt, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau.

The draws currently happening in Cameroun, the host country for the competition scheduled to commence in January, 2022, will also place the 24 qualifiers from the continent into groups for the Africa’s biggest football show.

The draws are holding, Tuesday, in the country’s capital, Yaounde.

The full draws

Group A: Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Cape Verde Islands

Group B: Senegal, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Malawi,

Group C: Morocco, Ghana, Comoros Islands, Gabon

Group D: Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Guinea-Bissau

Group E: Algeria, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire

Group F: Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, The Gambia

The 24 teams are divided into six groups of four with the top two teams progressing to the quarter finals alongside the four best third placed teams.

The rankings:

Pot 1: Cameroon, Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria.

Pot 2: Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea.

Pot 3: Cape Verde, Gabon Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau

Pot 4: Malawi, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Comoros, Ethiopia, Gambia.

From the above Pots, Ghana could be pair with any of the team in Pot 1 an three other teams from Pot 3 and Pot 4.

The Potting of teams, apart from the hosts and the champions were based on the FIFA Coca-Cola ranking.

According to CAF: “The 24 qualified teams will be allocated to four pots of six teams each, based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, to be released on 12 August 2021 (the last ranking to be released before the date of the draw).

“Based on this ranking, the top four teams will be allocated to Pot 1 along with the hosts, Cameroon and title holders Algeria. The remaining 18 teams will be allocated to the three remaining pots (Pots 2, 3 and 4) according to their ranking in descending order.

“The four pots representing the teams will be labelled pots 1 to 4. The six pots representing the groups will be labelled groups A to F.

“A ball from a team pot will be drawn, followed by a ball from one of the group pots, thus determining the position in which the respective team will play.

“Cameroon will be pre-assigned to position A1 as hosts. The remaining five teams in pot 1 will automatically be drawn into position 1 of each group (B to F). The same procedure will be repeated for the remaining pots.”