Mali were involved in one of the most dramatic matches at the last tournament in Angola when they came back from 4-0 down with 15 minutes left to draw with the hosts in the opening match. They have since been working to rebuild their squad with the arrival of Frenchman Alain Giresse as coach.

A younger squad has been built by Giresse around Barcelona star Seydou Keita, who is now 30 years old. The Malians will be without influential midfielder Mahamadou Diarra of Monaco, who did not make the trip to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Mali have also announced the call-ups of Ousmane Berthe and Souleymane Keita to their Afcon squad following injuries to midfielder Kalilou Traore and defender Mohamed Fofana.

The Eagles will be hoping to win their first game of this tournament against their neighbours if they are to do better than their last showing where they crashed out in the first round, albeit with one of the most impressive midfield talents in all of the continent.

Guinea will go into this game with the confidence of having stopped giants Nigeria from qualifying for the tournament in a tough group duel last year. Having missed out on the 2010 edition, the Syli Nationale will be looking to make it to the last eight and match their previous feats of 2004-2008.

Anything short of the quarter finals will be seen as failure on the side of Michel Dussuyer’s men who have the influential midfielder Pascal Feindouno and striker Ismael Bangoura in his side. They will also be able to count on the support of their minister of sport, former Liverpool forward Aboubacar Titi Camara who has been a force of inspiration for the team. Guinea have been hit with the loss of Kevin Constant, however, as the player decided to pull out of the squad ahead of the tournament for reasons that are not entirely clear.

Both teams have to contend with the overpowering presence of Ghana in their group.

A MUST SEE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y4Qq-0ddFE&t=11s

KINDLY TXT 525 TO 33680 AFTER VIEWING. THX

Mali may get it this time.

players coming out . .

anthems
seydou keita dey sing lol

Guinea anthem

na wa o see this guinean chewing like goat during their anthem disrespectful goat

game on

wow end to end stuff so soon
cool

Evenly matched sides. The game can go any way.

.x

o boy. Guinea is on fire.

see hairstyles o.

^
i tire, i dunno this and ghana game whose hairstyle dangerous pass

keita poor freekick

phew bangoura!!!!

what a gooallll
a supppppppper goallll

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!!!!!

hahahaha dem wan fite

bangoura miss again for guinea . .wow

the guy wan carry ball enter post.

guinea are trying to get back

mali may score again soon

choi yellow for diving tactics

diallo wants penalty o

bangoura again

mukina2:

hahahaha dem wan fite

U too lyk fight jor.

half time

the best match so far

Funkymallam:

U too lyk fight jor.

na free jackie chan film jor

interesting game[color=#000099][/color]

2ndhalf is on

bangoura na good player , i hope he scores

poor ball see how guinea loses the ball easily . .

freekick to mali

guinea off side

mukina2:

half time

the best match so far

na free jackie chan film jor  

yeah same thing i just said on twitter. Definitely d most entertaining game thus far. Both teams cohesive, skillful and slick.

trae_z:

yeah same thing i just said on twitter. Definitely d most entertaining game thus far. Both teams cohesive, skillful and slick.

yeah its end to end stuff, not one sided like most of the matches so far.

apart from Tunisia- Morocco, that was gangsta

Zambia has been the most impressive side, and then guinea and mali.

Bangoura is on fire.