Madagascar football National team, AKA the Barea is one of the first timer AFCON teams just like the Swallows at war of Burundi. Many know very little about the Barea and would easily be deceived in writing the debutants off but hey, you do that at your own peril. Below are ten reasons why Madagascar will be a force to reckon with this AFCON:

1. They have a very good French coach in the person of Nicholas Dupuis, and we all know what French coaches like Claude Leroy, Nerve Reinhard, Michel Dussuyer and the like have done in AFCON history

2. They have very good players including qualifier group A top scorer Faneva Ima Andriamatsinoro , Thomas Fontaine of Reims and Jeremy Morel of Lyon.

3. They were the first team to qualify for the 2019 AFCON and with two games to spare in a group which had. the dreaded Senegal, Sudan and Equitorial Guinea.

4. Madagascar is the reason why Sudan are absent in this years AFCON

5. Madagascar actually defeated Sudan by 3 goals to 1 in Khartoum, a very difficult venue for even Africa's big boys

6. Madagascar held the dreaded Senegal in Antananarivo, same Senegal that defeated Nigeria a few days ago

7. CAF president is from Madagascar, if you are a real African you know what this means.

8. Madagascar scored two goals against Senegal and Will have the confidence to score any other team


9. There will be no pressure on them to impress

10. They conceded only 8 goals throughout the qualifiers that had 6 games so they concede less than 2 goal s per game which makes them very dangerous