AFCON 2023: Teams to watch out in the knockout stage

By Muluh Alfred

The knockout stage of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations will feature 16 teams, six of which finished as group leaders, six as runners-up, and four as third-placed finishers

Given the tournament’s upsets in the group stages, predicting the teams to watch out for in the knockout stage can be challenging.

However, based on group stage performances, the defending champions Senegal would be among the strongest contenders.

Senegal are the only team to have won all group matches and secured nine points, scoring goals while conceding just one.

Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde are also teams to look at after they finished first in their groups, with Equatorial Guinea humiliating host country Ivory Coast and Cape Verde beating the black stars of Ghana and holding 7 time champions Egypt to a 2-2 draw.

However, teams like the Atlas Lions of Morocco, Angola, Mali who all finished as leaders of their groups can not be overlooked as potential contenders.

The knockout stage of the 2023 African cup of Nations will begin on January 27 and will run till January 30th 2024.