5252 African Nations Cup Group A -
by : Antony Melvin
Latest Odds
7/2 Ivory Coast, Ghana
9/2 Cameroon
13/2 Nigeria
11/1 Egypt
12/1 Morocco
14/1 Senegal
16/1 Tunisia, Mali
25/1 South Africa, Guinea
40/1 Angola
80/1 Zambia
100/1 Sudan, Namibia
250/1 Benin
Preview
African Cup of Nations 2008
Group A
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Ghana
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Morocco
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Guinea
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Namibia
Group B
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Nigeria
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Ivory Coast
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Mali
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Benin
Group C
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Cameroon
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Egypt
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Sudan
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Zambia
Group D
African Cup of Nations 2008 - South Africa
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Tunisia
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Angola
African Cup of Nations 2008 - Senegal
Morocco enter the tournament in strong form with wins over a series of other Africa Cup teams in recent weeks; Angola, Zambia, Senegal and Namibia have been beaten along with a creditable draw in France. The last defeat was back in September against group favourites, and hosts, Ghana.
Coach Henri Michel has plenty of experience of managing in Africa and has managed three different African teams in World Cup Final tournaments; Cameroon in 1994, Morocco in 1998 and the Ivery Coast in 2006. He returned to the Moroccan team in 2007.
Group A is a tricky group. Morocco will start off with their easiest fixture against Namibia – where failure to win will be a disaster that will be difficult to recover from.
The pivotal match of the group will be against Africa Cup specialists Guinea, who despite having no reputation internationally regularly reach the quarter-finals of this competition. Although Morocco are capable of shocking teams as powerful as France the fervour that will surround the Ghana games is very likely to sweep them into the knock-out stages and it will be between Guinea and Morocco to pick up the other place.
The final game of the group in Accra will, if all goes to plan, be the decider for the group between two undefeated teams. If only it were that simple! The Lions de l'Atlas (Lions of the Atlas) may yet be a dark horses in this competition and Ghana will need to play well to maintain Accra as their base.
British interest
Although some Moroccan’s have played in England in the past few years - Talal El Karkouri at Sunderland and Charlton, Mustapha Hadji at Coventry and Aston Villa, and Noureddine Naybet at Spurs the only British based player in the squad is Youssef Safri of Southampton.
The team is largely made up of prominent French Ligue Un players - Youssef Hadji, Moncef Zerka, Mickael Chretien (all of Nancy), Abdeslam Ouaddou (Valenciennes) and Maroune Chamakh (Bordeaux).
Qualifying
Morocco qualified easily from Group 12, in a small group with just Zimbabwe and Malawi for company; winning three and drawing in Harare against Zimbabwe. Interestingly Moroccan goal scoring depth is apparent in that their eight goals were scored by seven different players – only their 6’1” French-born striker Marouane Chamakh got two.
Star Man
Morocco are a nice technical side, as you’d expect from a coach like Henri Michel, but you can’t beat a big, prolific target man at any level of the game. Bordeaux’s best player is arguably now Marouane Chamakh, who has 30 goals for Morocco in 39 games, good at holding the ball up and using his height and power in the penalty area he could well come to the attention of an English club. This tournament could make the 24 year-old.
Current form; Last 10; W7, D2, L1, F21, A6
Morocco 6-0 Gabon 15-11-2006
Morocco 1-1 Tunisia 07-02-2007
Morocco 2-0 Zimbabwe 02-06-2007
Malawi 0-1 Morocco 16-06-2007
Ghana 2-0 Morocco 08-09-2007
Morocco 2-0 Namibia 17-10-2007
France 2-2 Morocco 16-11-2007
Morocco 3-0 Senegal 21-11-2007
Morocco 2-0 Zambia 12-01-2008
Morocco 2-1 Angola 16-01-2008
Africa Cup Fixtures
Namibia vs Morocco 21-01-2008
Guinea vs Morocco 24-01-2008
Ghana vs Morocco 28-01-2008
