2015 AFRICA CUP - KICK OFF - GROUP A - DAY 01 - PREVIEW
Equatorial Guinea vs Congo -:-
Burkina Faso vs Gabon -:-
Only two months after stepping in as hosts, Equatorial Guinea will kick off the Africa Cup of Nations today.
Original hosts Morocco had asked to postpone the event because of their fears over the spread of the Ebola virus but their plea was rejected by the Confederation of African Football.
The opening match of the 30th edition of the finals will feature the home country against Congo from 16:00 GMT.
Three hours later Burkina Faso will meet Gabon in the other Group A match.
Both games will be played in Bata, the country's biggest city, which also held the opening game in 2012 when the tournament was co-hosted with Gabon.
Algeria are Africa's top-ranked team and would have been one of the firm favourites were the event still taking place in Morocco.
So too would Tunisia, who were impressive in an unbeaten qualifying run in a preliminary group competition that lasted three months from September to November.
But north African teams rarely succeed in the difficult conditions of central Africa.
There is likely to be a strong challenge from the West African teams Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso, who were surprise runners-up in South Africa two years ago.
Mali have finished third at the last two editions and Ghana have played in the last four semi-finals.
Reigning champions Nigeria did not qualify, meaning they will sit out the tournament along with seven-times winners Egypt - the most successful nation in the competition's history.