An angry supporter attempted to strike Ghana coach Chris Hughton after their upset loss at the Africa Cup of Nations finals on Sunday and was taken away by police, team officials confirmed on Monday.

Ghana were beaten by a stoppage time goal by the Cape Verde Islands, the smallest of the 24 teams at the tournament in the Ivory Coast in one of several shock results on Sunday.

Hughton was accosted at the team hotel as Ghana returned from the match but the angry fan was intercepted by security officials.

Hughton was also subjected to a volley of a verbal abuse, officials told Reuters.

It was a second successive defeat by an underrated opponent after Ghana lost in November in the World Cup qualifiers to the Comoros Islands.

“We are incredibly, hugely disappointed with the result. We came into the game with a game plan,” Hughton told a press conference.

“We changed the way of playing, the system a bit so that we could start on the front foot.

“We thought the team that were put out was certainly a more offensive team. This was our intention.

“I think it rocked us the (first) goal that we conceded but I thought we got back into the game.”

Ghana were behind after 17 minutes in a match in which they were highly fancied and fielded a team full of players based at European clubs.

They equalised in the second half but were beaten by a stoppage time strike from Garry Rodrigues.

“At that stage (when Ghana equalised) it looked like we could go on and win it. We are hugely, hugely disappointed with our result,” Hughton said.

“And I know, and this group of players also know, how the Ghanaian people see this game, see this tournament and our expectations going into this one.”

Former Ireland international Hughton, whose father hailed from Ghana, has been coach of the team since March, having helped them at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar as a technical advisor.

His record is four wins in 11 games.

Lamine Camara scored twice as Senegal kicked off their Africa Cup of Nations title defence with a 3-0 victory over 10-man Gambia in Yamoussoukro on Monday.

Senegal moved top of the early Group C table ahead of Cameroon’s game against Guinea later Monday.

Aliou Cisse showed enough quality in the Ivorian heat to suggest they could become the first team to win back-to-back AFCON titles since Egypt reeled off three in a row in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Senegal’s XI featured just five of the starting team which beat Egypt on penalties in the final two years ago and it was youngster Camara who stole the show.

Gambia already face an uphill task to reach the knockout stage two years after a shock run to the quarter-finals on debut.

The holders wasted little time in piling the pressure on their West African neighbours and took the lead in the fourth minute.

Sadio Mane was left in plenty of space at the back post and his lay-off was swept home left-footed by the unmarked Pape Gueye from inside the area.

Gambia endured a troubled build-up to the tournament, boycotting a training session over an unpaid qualification bonus before their flight to the Ivory Coast was forced to turn around just nine minutes after take-off due to technical problems.

But they grew into the game after the early setback, going close to an equaliser when Musa Barrow curled a free-kick into the side-netting.

Gambia were dealt a blow shortly before half-time though when Cardiff City midfielder Ebou Adams was dismissed for a studs-up challenge.

The underdogs continued to threaten after the restart however, as Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy was forced to dive to his right to palm away Barrow’s long-range drive, with Ali Sowe slicing the rebound wide.

Senegal effectively killed off the game just moments later, though, as a slick passing move ended with 20-year-old Camara collecting Ismailia Sarr’s pass and drilling a low shot into the far corner.

The Lions of Teranga rounded off the scoring with an early contender for goal of the tournament in the 86th minute.

Clever trickery from Iliman Ndiaye took him away from two defenders and his pass was expertly bent into the top corner from the edge of the ‘D’ by Metz midfielder Camara.

Mohamed Badamosi came close to grabbing an injury-time consolation for the Gambians when he headed wide, but they were ultimately outclassed and will now turn their attention to their second game against Guinea on Friday.

Senegal will likely face a tougher assignment when they face five-time winners Cameroon.

Guinea joined a growing list of surprise sides at the Africa Cup of Nations by drawing 1-1 against five-time champions Cameroon in Group C on Monday despite playing the second half with 10 men.

Mohamed Bayo gave Guinea the lead before captain Francois Kamano was sent off just before half-time. Frank Magri equalised early in the second half, but a winning goal eluded Cameroon.

The brave Guinean showing on day three followed a string of unexpected results on Sunday with Cape Verde defeating Ghana, Mozambique holding Egypt and Equatorial Guinea drawing with Nigeria.

Earlier on Monday, Lamine Camara scored twice as title-holders Senegal outplayed Gambia 3-0 with the losers also having a player sent off late in the first half.

Cameroon did not include Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana in the matchday 23 after he arrived in the Ivorian capital just a few hours before the kick-off.

Onana delayed his arrival so that he could play for United in a 2-2 Premier League draw against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Coach Rigobert Song chose Fabrice Ondoa as his starting goalkeeper with two other shot-stoppers, Devis Epassy and Simon Ngapandouetnbu, on the bench.

Cameroon, seeking a sixth title and second in four editions, were also missing star forward and leading 2022 Cup of Nations scorer Vincent Aboubakar, who was ruled out by a thigh injury.

Guinea suffered a huge pre-match blow when Serhou Guirassy, scorer of 17 goals for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga this season, was ruled out by a knee injury.

In the absence of Guirassy, Bayo was the attacking spearhead and he gave the Syli National (national elephants) a shock lead on 10 minutes.

His first goal attempt was parried by Ondoa, but Cameroon failed to clear the ball and when it came back to Bayo, he slammed it into the net.

Subsequently, Cameroon won plenty of possession but were unable to seriously trouble Guinea goalkeeper Ibrahima Kone.

In a Guinea counterattack, audacious Sekou Sylla came close to scoring with a long-range shot that had Ondoa frantically backtracking before it landed on the roof of the net.

Guinea suffered a huge blow in the first half of added time when Kamano was sent off after the Egyptian referee changed his initial yellow card to a red for a foul on Magri.

The match official altered his decision after going to the touchline VAR monitor and seeing Kamano stamp from behind on the heel of his opponent.

Cameroon applied pressure from the start of the second half and Magri levelled on 51 minutes with a far-post header across Kone after a pin-point cross by Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.

Kone rescued Guinea as the end of regular time approached, first parrying, then grasping the ball after a close-range shot from Karl Toko Ekambi.

There were water breaks in both halves to assist the players, who had to contend with 36 Celsius (97 Fahrenheit) heat when the match kicked off in the central city.

In the second series of group matches on Friday, Cameroon tackle Senegal and Guinea face Gambia in a Yamoussoukro double-header.

Angolan striker, Cristovao Paciencia rescued a vital point for his side after converting from the spot to hold Algeria to a 1-1 stalemate at Bouake’s Stade De La Paix in their TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Group C opener against the former champions on Monday evening.

Angolan striker, Cristovao Paciencia rescued a vital point for his side after converting from the spot to hold Algeria to a 1-1 stalemate at Bouake’s Stade De La Paix in their TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Group C opener against the former champions on Monday evening.

The 2019 champions came into the tie as favourites on paper and unsurprisingly pinned their opponents into their own half from the opening whistle.

Fares Chaibi was the first to ask questions of Adilson Cipriano in as early as the 6th minute after doing well to connect with a Youcef Belaili cross for his volleyed effort to go narrowly wide.

Belaili, who was a constant threat to the Angolan defense almost opened the scoring charts in the eighth minute after doing well to cut in from the left to unleash a powerful strike that was fisted away by Cipriano.

The Desert Foxes were eventually rewarded for their relentless attacks after a lobbed ball from the back went over Kialonda Gaspar for 2019 title hero, Baghdad Bounedjah to comfortably slot it into the bottom left corner.

Interestingly Bounedjah scored Algeria’s opening goal in their first match of the 2019 edition against Kenya, where they went on to win the title Egypt.

Coming back from the recess, Angola’s game plan was to get balls into the danger area – a tactic that paid dividends in the 68th minute when substitute, Cristovao Paciencia converted from the spot kick after he was fouled in the box by Nabil Bentaleb.

The evenly contested encounter concluded with both sides sharing the spoils in front of a highly vocal Stade De La Paix crowd.

Next for Algeria will be a clash against Burkina Faso on Saturday at 14h00, while Angola face Mauritania in the 20h00 Kick Off.

• This will be the first encounter between Senegal and Gambia at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Excluding the CAF African Nations Championship, Senegal and Gambia last faced each other in the qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup: both games ended in draws (0-0; 1-1).
• Senegal are making their 17^th appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They will be aiming to win back-to-back AFCON tournaments for the first time since Egypt’s three in a row from 2006 to 2010, although no AFCON defending champion has progressed further than the round of 16 in the last six editions of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.
• Senegal have won their opening game in each of the last four CAF Africa Cup of Nations (v Ghana in 2015, v Tunisia in 2017, v Tanzania in 2019, v Zimbabwe in 2022).
• Since 2017, Senegal have kept more clean sheets than any other team in the Africa Cup of Nations (13 in 18 matches).
• This is Gambia’s second appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They reached the quarter finals in their inaugural participation in the 2021 edition, eventually losing 2-0 to Cameroon.
• As per the last edition, Gambia were the only team to make it through both the preliminary round and group stage of the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, beating Chad in the preliminaries and finishing second to Mali in the group phase.
• Despite reaching the quarter finals in AFCON 2021, Gambia never scored more than one goal in their five matches (W3 D1 L1). All three of their victories were by a 1-0 scoreline.
• Sadio Mané has scored or assisted 48% of Senegal’s goals over the last three CAF Africa Cup of Nations (8 goals, 3 assists). He’s also had 97 touches in the opposition box (5.4 per game) and completed 57 dribbles (3.2 per game) since his debut in the competition in 2015, more than any other player over that period.
• This is Aliou Cissé’s fourth consecutive CAF Africa Cup of Nations as Senegal head coach – under his leadership, the Lions of Teranga have been quarter-finalists in 2017, beaten finalists in 2019 and champions in 2022. Senegal have also won more games (11) and kept more clean sheets (13) at AFCON than any other team during the same period.
• Musa Barrow was directly involved in all four of Gambia’s goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, scoring twice and assisting the other two.

• This will be the third encounter between Cameroon and Guinea at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, all taking place in the group stages. The two previous meetings ended in draws: 2-2 in 1998 and 1-1 in 2015.
• Cameroon are making their 21^st appearance in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, a tally only bettered by Egypt (26), Côte d’Ivoire (25) and Ghana (24). Egypt (7) are the only team to have won the tournament on more occasions than The Indomitable Lions (5).
• Cameroon won the only previous AFCON to be held in Côte d’Ivoire, it was in 1984. They beat Nigeria 3-1 in the final.
• Penalty shoot-outs excluded, Cameroon have lost only one of their last 17 matches at the Africa Cup of Nations (W8 D8), a 3-2 defeat against Nigeria in the round of 16 of the 2019 edition.
• Guinea are taking part in their 14^th CAF Africa Cup of Nations. It’s the most appearances for a team at the tournament without ever winning it – the closest they came was in 1976 when Guinea finished second to Morocco in what was then a final group stage.
• Guinea have reached the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations in six of their last seven participations but have never actually progressed in the knockout phase of the competition during that time, either in normal/extra-time or on penalties.
• Guinea have won only two of their last 13 matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (D6 L5), a 2-0 win against Burundi in 2019 and 1-0 against Malawi in 2022.
• Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko Ekambi scored 13 of Cameroon’s 14 goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, eight and five respectively. Aboubakar’s total was the highest in an edition of the tournament since 1974.
• Cameroon’s Rigobert Song is making his first CAF Africa Cup of Nations appearance as head coach. As a player, he featured in a joint-record eight AFCON tournaments and won it on two occasions (2000, 2002).
• Guinea’s nine goals scored in the qualifiers of this African Cup of Nations were scored by eight different players, with Naby Keïta the only player to find the net twice.

TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations defending champions, Senegal kick off their title defense on Monday, 15 January against The Gambia. 

The Lions of Teranga and The Scorpions officially open what has been deemed as the Group of death in a Group C also consisting of Cameroon and Guinea.

Nothing less than a second consecutive title would a smile on coach Aliou Cisse and his star-studded squad that is touted as one of the tournament favourites with star players such as Sadio Mane in their arsenal. 

Interestingly, no African champion has progressed further than the round of 16 in the last six editions of the competition.  Another interesting fact that favours the defending champions is that they have won their opening game in each of the last four editions.

In The Gambia, Senegal meet one of the underdogs of the competition who are only making their second appearance of the competition. However, this is the same nation that reached the quarter-finals in their inaugural participation in 2021. 

Speaking to CAFOnline upon their arrival, The Gambia coach, Tom Saintfiet said they were aiming to do well in their second appearance and were well prepared for the competition. 

“We are delighted to arrive in Côte d’Ivoire for the second consecutive Africa Cup of Nations. We are well prepared for the competition, and we are ready for the start of the competition. We expect the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Côte d’Ivoire to be special and good, especially with the presence of The Gambia in Group C alongside Senegal, Guinea and Cameroon” 

Kick off at Yamoussoukro’s Charles Konan Banny Stadium is at 14h00 Local Time.

• Algeria and Angola are facing each other for the second time at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Their only previous encounter produced a goalless draw in the group stages of the 2010 edition.
• Algeria are making their 20^th appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They will be attempting to win the trophy for the third time, after 1990 and 2019.
• Algeria’s two previous AFCON titles were won on North African soil: at home in 1990 and in Egypt in 2019. The only previous time Algeria have reached the final outside of North Africa was in 1980, in Nigeria.
• This is Algeria’s sixth consecutive appearance at AFCON, their longest streak since qualifying for seven tournaments in a row between 1980 and 1992.
• Algeria scored with only one of their 46 shots at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They converted 13 of their 77 shots on their way to the title in 2019.
• This is Angola’s ninth appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They have qualified from the AFCON group stages on only two occasions (2008 and 2010, the latter as hosts) but have never won a game in the knockout phase of the competition.
• Angola are winless in their last eight AFCON matches (D4 L4), their joint-longest drought in the competition. Their last victory was their 2012 opening group match against Burkina Faso.
• Angola’s last three matches of 2023 in all competitions ended goalless (v DR Congo in October, v Cape Verde and Mauritius in November).
• Angola are unbeaten in their last five opening matches at a CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament (W1 D4). The last time they lost their first match at an AFCON edition was 2006 (1-3 v Cameroon).
• Angola have scored only two goals in their last seven AFCON matches – one of them was an own goal.
• Mohamed Amoura (3 goals) was the only Algerian player to score more than one goal in the qualifiers for this year’s tournament.

Egypt captain, Mohammed Salah scored late to rescue Egypt from a Mozambique shock in their opening group D game of the  Africa Cup of Nations Côte d’Ivoire 2023.

It took the seven-time champions just two minutes to get into the lead thanks to Mohamed Mostafa’s strike.

Mohammed Salah failed to connect to a cross from Mohammed Hamdi but Mostafa was just there to swivel a shot into the bottom corner.

Mostafa once again was put through by Salah but his final effort was saved by goalkeeper Ernan Siluane.

Mozambique came close to getting their first goal after Mohamed Abdelmonem was forced to put the ball into his own net but El Shenawy managed to save the situation.

The Mambas came into the second half much stronger.

Witness Quembo headed home the equalizer for Mozambique. A bullet header beat the palm of El Shenawy after a lovely cross from Domingos on the 55th minutes

The goal is Mozambique’s first in the last 14 years.

Three minutes later, Clesio Bauque added Mozambique’s second. He broke through the Egyptian to set up a one-on-one with Mohamed El Shenawy to score.

Domingos Macandza brought down Mostafa Mohammed in the closing stages of the game and after VAR review, Egypt were awarded a penalty.

Salah stepped up and scored for Egypt to draw them level.

Egypt will play Ghana on Thursday January 18 at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium.