Senegal are the number one favourites in Group A, meaning they are looking to kick-ff their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a win, although they cannot afford to underestimate Zambia.

After they shone at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, the Teranga Lions largely struggled to fulfill their undoubted potential in the coming years.

Players like El Hadji Diouf, Papa Bouba Diop and Khalilou Fadiga are no longer part of the squad, but boss Amara Traore now has the courtesy of choosing from a star-studded line-up.

Senegal easily qualified for the final tournament, winning 16 out of 18 possible points in the group with Cameroon, Congo and Mauritus, so no wonder they are now considered the third favourites for the trophy.

With players like Demba Ba, Papiss Demba Cisse, Mamadou Niang, Moussa Sow and Dame N’Doye vying for the places in attack, odds of 1.74 (37/50) offered by 188BET on home win do look tempting.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-4): Coundoul – Sane, Mangane, Diawara, M’Bengue – Diame, Gomis – N’Doye, Cisse, Sow, Niang.

Despite being considered one of the weaker national teams in Africa, Zambia have been showing a lot of promise over the last few years and they are regular at Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.

The Chipolopolo qualified for the tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea by topping the group that also contained Libya, Mozambique and Comoros, and they have again been placed in the same group as Libya.

Zambia did great at the previous AFCON tournament, impressive everyone with their attacking displays, and were very unlucky to get eliminated on penalties in the quarter-finals.

Herve Renard’s side now hope to start the new tournament with a bang, and they are 6.50 (11/2) with Stan James to beat Senegal.

Key striker Jacob Mulenga misses out through injury, but that shouldn’t be a problem when Emmanuel Mayuka, James Chamanga and Colins Mbesuma are waiting in the wings.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Mweene – Musonda, Chintu, Sunzu, Lungu –Chansa, Sinkala, Kalaba – C. Katongo, Chamanga, Mayuka.