MTNFootball

Angola's Manucho will be key

Angola and Morocco get their 2013 Africa Cup of Nations campaigns underway when they meet at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Saturday night.

The match will be the second of the day at the venue after South Africa and Cape Verde clash in the tournament opener.

All four of the sides in Group A have genuine hopes of reaching the quarterfinals, which means a positive start in the pool is crucial.

Both Angola and Morocco have enjoying good build-ups to the tournament, although the Moroccan Press has been critical of coach Rachid Taoussi and his decision to leave out experience stars Marouane Chamakh, Houssine Kharja and Adel Taarabt from his squad.

But the coach has justified the selections, saying the squad is more of a “team” without these players.  

“Before Morocco had players of quality, now we have a team of quality,” Taoussi said. “We have created a spirit in the team and a solidarity in the way we play. We are now ready to overcome the obstacles ahead of us and do much better than we did before.”

Morocco were surprise first round losers in the 2012 finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, and Taoussi says they are prepared to put that disappointment behind them.

“This side is prepared to do well and our objective is to first get out of the group and then see what we can achieve. Tactically we are ready, we’ve ready for a while for this tournament. We all know it is important to do well because of what happened last time.”

The Moroccans have suffered an injury blow ahead of the tournament after midfielder Mehdi Namli broke his leg in the warm-up match against South African PSL side BidVest Wits on Tuesday.

Angola have been in fine form in their warm-up matches for the tournament, with wins over Rwanda, Cameroon’s Under-23 side, African champions Zambia and Botswana.

That latest win over the Zebras last Sunday saw a return to action of star striker Manucho and midfielder Djalma Campos, two players who will be key components of this Angolan side.

"We have seen Manucho Gonçalves playing most of the match, Djalma did his first match, he did well despite he is recovering from a lesion, as well as other athletes. This means to say that the team is physically well and prepared to face the competition with dignity," coach Uruguayan coach Gustavo Ferrin said.

The odds are stacked against an Angolan success though, in five previous meetings with Morocco they have lost four. The other was a 2-2 draw. The last of these matches was in Lisbon in 2009 when Morocco won 2-0.