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African Cup of Nations

Eto'o eager to get Cameroon off to a flying start

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All you need to know betting-wise as Cameroon face Egypt in the African Cup of Nations

Group C kicks off with a clash between two of African football's powerhouses, who will be looking to get their tournament off to a flyer.

Holders Egypt have won the African Cup of Nations a record five times, while four-time winners Cameroon are fancied by many to equal their rival's record. Indeed, this match up could attract some business at attractive odds in Betfair's Name the Finalists market.

However, despite outsiders Sudan and Zambia completing the Group C line-up, this opening match should not just be viewed as an early shoot-out for top spot, despite Egypt trading at [1.2] to qualify and Cameroon just [1.05].

Cameroon (8.4 to win the competition) are understandably favourites at [2.24] to open their campaign with a victory, with the holders trading at [3.76] and the draw offered at [2.24].

Egypt, ranked 35th in the world and 20 in the outright betting, were lacklustre in qualifying - the Pharaohs failed to beat lowly Burundi, Burkina Faso and Mauritania - whilst the Indomitable Lions (second highest ranked African nation at 25th) are still getting used to life under new coach Otto Pfister and have not played a competitive match since September.

Pfister, appointed in October, has a wealth of experience in African football and the German has in his ranks one of the tournament's star players in three time African footballer of the year Samuel Eto'o. The Barcelona star was the leading scorer in 2006 and will be expected to provide the firepower again in the absence of injured forward partner Achille Web and has been made [4.6] favourite to be the tournament's top scorer.

At the back, veteran defender and skipper Rigobert Song, who has won more than 100 caps, will use all his experience to help marshal the defence.

Egypt's own hotshot striker Ahmed Hassan (the joint second highest scorer two years ago) is suspended for this opener, while the defending champions will be without injured duo Mido and Mohammed Barakat for the whole tournament. They do still have plenty of firepower up front with Amr Zaki, Emad Moteab and Hamburg's Mohamed Zidan in their ranks.

The Pharaohs have enjoyed the better of recent head-to-head meetings, winning a 3-2 thriller at home in qualification for the 2006 World Cup, before claiming a 1-1 draw in Yaoundé that cost Cameroon a Finals place in Germany.

Overall, Cameroon have played Egypt 21 times, winning nine, while seven matches have been drawn.

Pfister's outfit had little trouble in reaching Ghana, winning five of their six qualifiers and the Lions will be confident of repeating their strong start in 2006, when they reached the quarter finals with a 100% record in the group stage.

The big guns are trading at [5.5] and [2.5] respectively to reach the final and those odds could change markedly after this encounter.