The night of Wednesday, the 4th of December saw the unveiling of the groups for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations tournament. The final draws were held in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, who are also the hosts of the tournament.

The groups stand at:

Group A: Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Congo

Group B: Zambia, Tunisia, Cape Verde, DR Congo

Group C: Ghana, Algeria, South Africa, Senegal

Group D: Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon, Guinea

Group C in particular is already being lauded as this tournament’s ‘Group of Death’. Algeria is currently the top ranked country on the continent and finished at the top of their qualifier group. In fact South Africa and Ghana also finished at the top of their respective groups as well. Senegal managed second place in their qualifying efforts but ousted Egypt from the running in the process.

Algeria will be feeling confident with the African Player of the Year Yacine Brahimi among their ranks. Ghana go into the competition under the direction of former Chelsea boss, Avram Grant who was just recently appointed. An on-form South African side will certainly make this a group to keep an eye on.

The competition in Group D is nothing to scoff at either. Whoever progresses from Group C will come up against strong opposition via Group D, which contains Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon and Guinea. Cameroon advanced to this stage unbeaten and Ivory Coast boasts the likes of Yaya Toure and Gervinho. The two sides met at the qualifying stages and the Ivorians will be looking to make up for the 4 – 1 defeat they suffered at the hands of Cameroon

The tournament will kickoff next year on the 17th of January and culminate on 8 February. The draw was supposed to have taken place on November 26 back when the host was to be Morocco, but the North African country abdicated due to the Ebola scare and Guinea took over.