The State of Play
The talk for Cameroon heading into this tournament has inevitably been off-field decision-making with Andre Onana’s bizarre decision to delay his arrival into the camp and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s omission. They remain a strong enough side to worry a lot of sides in this tournament but are arguably weaker than two years ago when they reached the semi-finals and had home advantage for that month, too.
Guinea are not necessarily heavily reliant on captain Naby Keita because their midfield has a fair bit of pedigree but they may well be reliant on striker Serhou Guirassy. With 16 goals in the Bundesliga so far this season, he is arguably the in-form striker in the competition so the game plan being to sit tight and hope he can work some magic is one likely to be followed by the Guineans.
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Team News
The big talking point for Cameroon ahead of their opening match is in goal. Andre Onana said he would fly straight to the game after playing for Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon but Rigobert Song and Cameroon have decided he won’t play this opener anyway with Fabrice Ondoa expected to start in goal for one of the pre-tournament favourites.
As for Guinea, fitness concerns over captain Naby Keita are always the biggest issue but the former Liverpool midfielder is expected to be fully fit and available for their opener on Monday afternoon.
Expected Line-ups
Cameroon: Ondoa; Castelletto, Wooh, Moukoudi, Yongwa; Neyou, Ntcham; Ngamaleu, Anguissa, N’Jie; Aboubakar
Guinea: Kone; Conte, Sow, Diakhaby, Sylla; Keita, Toure, Cisse; Guilavogui, Guirassy, Kamano
What they Said
Guinea’s Head Coach, Kaba Diawara, is aware of the attacking reliance on Serhou Guirassy and there are slight concerns over his fitness after his substitution against Nigeria in a friendly last week. Diawara said: “He came off to avoid any risks. We don’t know how serious it is now, but it doesn’t look too serious, I can only hope it’s nothing serious.”
When and How to Watch
The game at the Charles Konan Banny Stadium will kick off at 17:00 on Monday January 15th and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Subscribers to Sky Sports can alternately stream the game online via the ‘Sky Go’ app.
Prediction
Cameroon are without some big names in their squad for this one with Andre Onana still on club duty, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting left out by Song altogether and Bryan Mbeumo missing through injury. They face a Guinea side that defeated Nigeria by two goals to nil in their last warm-up and will be confident of being a nuisance to most teams in this competition so a low-scoring affair is to be expected.
