Ivory Coast v Guinea-Bissau: Africa Cup of Nations – live

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations 2023: the hosts Ivory Coast v Guinea-Bissau. It’s the first of 52 games over the next four weeks, culminating in the final on Sunday 11 February. And we’re due a good tournament.

In recent times the African Cup of Nations has looked better on paper than on the pitch, with a head-scratchingly low goals-per-game average. But it is at least a model of competitiveness and unpredictability. Since Egypt won three in a row between 2006-10, there have been six tournaments and six different winners – none of whom, to Mo Salah’s abundant chagrin, have been Egypt.

Egypt are among a list of maybe 10 potential winners this time. Morocco, World Cup semi-finalists 13 months ago, are favourites. Ivory Coast, hosts for the first time since 1984, are also on fancied, as you’d expect of a team with enough attacking talent to leave Wilfried Zaha out of the entire squad. It will be a surprise if they don’t start with a comfortable win tonight.

Guinea-Bissau have never won a game at the Africa Cup of Nations and are among the outsiders. But a forgiving format (six groups of four, top two and the four best third-placed teams go through) gives all 24 teams hope of reaching the knockout stages. Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea are the other teams in Group A; they meet tomorrow afternoon.

Kick off 8pm in Abidjan, 8pm GMT.