Libya to play in opening Nations Cup clash
Reuters - Saturday 29 October 2011, 20:24
Libya, who qualified in fairytale
fashion for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finals, were drawn on
Saturday to play in the tournament's opening game.
They meet co-hosts Equatorial Guinea in Group A in Bata on
January 21 to launch the three-week event and will have a
reasonable chance of making the second round after also being
paired with Senegal and Zambia.
Libya finished second in their qualifying section and went
through to the finals as one of the best runners-up.
The draw also brought together north African rivals Morocco
and Tunisia in Group C alongside co-hosts Gabon and Niger.
Tunisia beat Morocco in the 2004 final and are the only
winners from the last eight Nations Cup tournaments to qualify
for the 2012 event.
Ivory Coast are the top seeds in Group B where they again
meet Burkina Faso who shared the same opening-round section at
the last edition in Angola in 2010.
Group D top seeds Ghana were drawn alongside west African
rivals Guinea and Mali plus newcomers Botswana.