Road to Cameroon 2021 Afcon underway

Soccer Football - Africa Cup of Nations 2019 - Group D - South Africa v Namibia - Al Salam Stadium, Cairo, Egypt - June 28, 2019 South Africa's Sibusiso Vilakazi in action with Namibia's Peter Shalulile. [REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh]

The Group Phase of the 2021 Total Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) action with 48 matches takes centre stage from today to next week.

Last month, the group stage was completed by the quartet of Chad, Gambia, South Sudan and Sao Tome e Principe after victories in the preliminaries.

This stage offers a mouth-watering prospect for the big guns the chance to assert their influence after not too impressive scorecard at the last Afcon in Egypt.

It’s going to be an exciting series starting from Group A where upstarts Chad who will hope to continue with their fairy-tale run when they visit the Brave Warriors of Namibia in Windhoek.

The Brave Warriors were one of the only three teams along with Burundi and Tanzania that failed to win or draw any of their three matches at the Afcon in Egypt and it would be interesting to see how well they have cured themselves of that malady.

Yet it would be West African battle royale in the other Group A fixture between Mali and Guinea in Bamako since both sides failed to last the distance in Egypt where they were shown the exit in the Round of 16.

It will surely going to be a new beginning for Guinea under new French coach Didier Six, who replaced Paul Put while Les Aigles of Mali continue their chase for glory under Mohamed Magassouba who supervised their last Afcon campaign in Egypt.

Equally, there should be fireworks in Group B based on the pedigree of the two combatants when Burkina Faso entertain Uganda in Ouagadougou today.