By Ghanaman

Three exciting matches are billed to take place later today at the ongoing African Cup Of Nations in Ivory Coast.

The West African hosts set the tone of the tournament with a comfortable 2-0 victory over minnows Guinea Bissau to raise the curtains on the 34th edition of Africa’s flagship football event last night.

Sekou Fofana and Jean-Phillippe Krasso delivered the decisive goals either side of half time to send the home fans into celebratory mood.

Yesterday’s defeat meant that Guinea Bissau are yet to register a win at the AFCON with ten matches played thus far and are one of four teams in that category (Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzanian).

Three of the most successful sides in the competitions history will take to the pitch at different times today.

First on the roster will be the Nigeria vs Equatorial Guinea scheduled for 15:00 (WST) at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.

The Super Eagles will hope to go one better than they did when they last visited The Ivory Coast for the Afcon tournament. On that occasion in 1984, they lost the title to arch rivals Cameroon after going down 3-1. Since then, they’ve racked up two more titles in 1994 and 2013 to take their total haul to three.

Nigeria have in their possession one of the most lethal strikers in football and will be hoping Victor Oshimen continues his hot streak from the qualifiers where he bagged an impressive 10 goals, if they’re to make their 20th Afcon participation count.

The reigning African Footballer of the year will have a supporting cast all around him, and shouldn’t be short of service from the midfield with Fulham’s Alex Iwobi running things there, while in defense, the experienced Kenneth Omeruo will be on hand to provide the template of their 2013 triumph.

Their opponents however, will have no such worries as Coach Juan Micha will be looking to blend a largely inexperienced squad and maybe replicate their impressive run at the last edition where they exited at the quarter final stage.

The day’s second game is a Group B opener and will see the most successful Afcon side in history, Egypt trade tackles with less fancied Mozambique by 17:00 (WST) at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium, Abidjan.

The Mambas are making their 5th appearance at the Continental showpiece but yet to win a game, amassing just 2 draws and 10 losses in the process.

Their more illustrious opponents on the other hand have 7 continental trophies to their name with the last one coming in 2010 when they recorded the first and only three peat in the tournament’s history from 2006-2010.

Mohammed Salah is amongst the most terrifying wingers in football and delivering the goals for the Pharaohs will be largely dependent on him if they are to banish the ghosts of the last tournament where they lost on penalties to Senegal.

Four-time champions Ghana will be making their 24th appearance at the Afcon and a 5th triumph starts with a tie against Cape Verde by 20:00 (WST).

The Black Stars failed woefully at the last edition via a group stage exit and will be hoping for a better performance.

Captain Andre Ayew is also bidding to equal the all time Afcon appearance record currently held jointly by Cameroon’s Rigobert Song and Ahmed Hassan of Egypt. Scoring in Ivory Coast will also see him become the first player to score in seven different tournaments.

Cape Verde meanwhile have been here just three times and will be hoping to go one better at the 4th time of asking, by winning a knockout match for the first time.

Today’s lineups promises to be good with lots of goals expected.