Africa Cup of Nations hosts Equatorial Guinea will be pressed to get off to a winning start when they face Congo Brazzaville in the tournament's opening game in Group A on Saturday.
The curtain-raiser to the competition in the country's largest city Bata will be followed later in the day by a meeting of the group's other two sides, Burkina Faso and Gabon, who clash again after doing battle in qualifying.
Equatorial Guinea rescued this year's tournament by agreeing to act as hosts after the late withdrawal of Morocco due to Ebola fears, and their fans will now expect Nzalang Nacional to match the exploits of three years ago, when they beat all the odds to reach the last eight of the same competition on home soil.
Nevertheless, they were initially disqualified from the competition for fielding an ineligible player, and their build-up has been somewhat chaotic, with Argentine Esteban Becker only named as the country's new coach last week in place of Andoni Goikoetxea, whose contract expired recently and was not renewed.
"We want to surprise a few people. We will take things one game at a time and try to do well for the people of the country who are all behind us," Becker said in an interview with Spanish Radio Marca.
"We have a new, young squad of players who play in the lower leagues in Spain. I called up hungry young players and I hope they do well."
Survivors from the 2012 campaign include Javier Balboa, Sipo and Juvenal Edjogo, and they will again be expected to inspire the oil-rich country far beyond most expectations.
Meanwhile, Congo Brazzaville's veteran coach Claude Le Roy has put the host nation under extra pressure after he openly dismissed as "catastrophic" his team's hotel in Bata, where the tournament final will be staged on Sunday, February 8.
Source: AFP