Africa Cup of Nations in Numbers

Ahead of the draw of the final tournament of the TOTAL Africa Cup of Nations Gabon 2017 on Wednesday, 19 October 2016 in Libreville, here are some numerical highlights of the history of the qualifiers and the Africa Cup of Nations.

1 – Amongst the 16 finalists, Guinea Bissau is the only first timer. They finished in Group E ahead of Congo, Zambia and Guinea Bissau. The presence of the ‘Djurtus’ maintains the record of having a Portuguese speaking country at every edition of the final tournament since 2006. Angola made five successive appearances between 2006 and 2013 with Cape Verde qualifying for the first time in 2013 in South Africa and two years later in Equatorial Guinea.

2 – Two best runners-up, Uganda and Togo from Groups D and A respectively qualified alongside the winners of the 13 groups namely Tunisia (Group A), DR Congo (Group B), Mali (Group C), Burkina Faso (Group D), Guinea Bissau (Group E), Morocco (Group F), Egypt (Group G), Ghana (Group H), Cote d’Ivoire (Group I), Algeria (Group J), Senegal (Group K), Zimbabwe (Group L) and Cameroon (Group M).

3 – The Warriors of Zimbabwe have qualified for the final tournament for only the third time after 2004 and 2006.  

4 – Four teams have indigenous coaches – Florent Ibenge (DR Congo), Paulo Torres (Guinea Bissau), Aliou Cisse (Senegal) and Calistus Pasuwa (Zimbabwe). Also four Gabonese cities, Libreville, Oyem, Franceville and Port Gentil will host the finals of the 31st edition from 14 January to 5 February 2017. 

7 – The number of goals scored by the top scorer of the qualifiers, Soudani Hilal El Arabi of Algeria. It includes a brace in the 3-1 away win over …

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