The 2023 African Nations Championship gets underway with a meeting between Algeria and Libya at the Nelson Mandela Stadium on Friday evening.
Both teams will be looking to lay down an early statement of intent in Group A, where they have been drawn alongside Ethiopia and Mozambique.
Match preview
Algeria wrapped up their preparations for the upcoming CHAN tournament with a goalless stalemate against Ghana at the Miloud-Hadefi stadium on Saturday.
Despite being on top for large spells of the contest, Madjid Bougherra's men failed to find the breakthrough that their dominance on the day perhaps merited.
It is now five games without a victory for the Fennec Foxes across all competitions dating back to December 17, when they saw off the threat of Syria.
Awaiting them next is the task of facing off against an opposing outfit who are unbeaten in the most recent four meetings between the teams, winning three of them.
Featuring at the African Nations Championship for only the second time, Algeria will be keen to improve upon their first outing back in 2011 which ended in a group-stage exit.
Libya fell to a comprehensive 3-1 loss against the Democratic Republic of the Congo when the sides went head-to-head in a warm-up fixture on Saturday.
After going behind to Massour's own goal, Corentin Martins's men levelled matters through Mohamed, before a second-half double from Jean-Marc Makusu decided the contest.
Consequently, The Mediterranean Knights have now been beaten in consecutive matches in 2023 off the back of a 2-1 victory against Tanzania in their final involvement of 2022.
Aiming to replicate their success from the 2014 CHAN where they went all the way in South Africa, Libya now seek a winning start to life in this year's edition.
Team News
Youcef Laouafi and Karim Aribi are the most experienced members of the Algerian side, having registered a combined five appearances for the senior team.
Both men are expected to feature right from the off here alongside Aymen Mahious, who opened his international account in a 2-2 draw against Senegal last month.
Barely a week after threatening to pull out of the competition, Libya recently released their 28-man squad of home-based players in accordance with CHAN rules.
Rabea Al-Laafi has been tasked with leading the troops and unsurprisingly so, with the 31-year-old having participated at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
Algeria possible starting lineup:
Chaal; Belkhiter, Laouafi, Keddad, Loucif; Kendouci, Draoui, Mrezigue; Aribi, Debbih, Meziane
Libya possible starting lineup:
Azzaqa; Al Laafi, Fakroun, El-Thalba, Makkari; Mohammed, Al-Masry, Belaem; Al-Mehdi, Alharaish, Al-Musrati
We say: Algeria 2-1 Libya
Buoyed by their home supporters, Algeria should be fully up for this one and will back themselves to come out on top at the end of the 90 minutes. We can see the hosts emerging triumphant, albeit by only a narrow margin.
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