As Morocco get ready to take on Comoros in their opening Group A match in Rabat on Sunday, they will be full of confidence they can get a win with their star-studded squad, and history suggests they will.
While the host nation has lost the Cup of Nations opener on a few occasions, there have been three times as many home wins as away victories.
There have been a total of 18 wins by the host nation and five away victors, with nine opening matches ending in draws. One tournament opener was not played between the hosts.
Those draws include a turgid, nerve-filled encounter in 2013 when South Africa were held to a goalless draw by Cape Verde at Soccer City.
The five away victories include Egypt in the very first tournament in 1957, when just three countries participated. It was almost three decades later before another shock away win, which came in Cairo in 1986 when Senegal beat hosts Egypt 1–0.
The Pharaohs, however, went on to win the trophy, edging Cameroon on penalties in the final.
Nigeria beat hosts Senegal 2–1 in the 1992 opener, and two years later Mali stunned Tunisia, effectively scuppering home hopes and leaving a tournament where the absence of home support was so pronounced that Tunisian authorities reportedly bused in soldiers to fill the stands.
Burkina Faso were the last hosts to lose their opening game, going down to Cameroon in 1998, although they exceeded expectations by reaching the semi-finals.
Algeria hold the record for the most convincing opening-day triumph when they thrashed Nigeria 5–1 in 1990. The two sides met again in the final, with Algeria edging the Super Eagles by a single goal.
Tunisia beat Ethiopia 4–0 in 1965, while the Ivory Coast, when last hosts 40 years ago, opened their campaign with a 3–0 win over Togo.
South Africa began the road to their 1996 triumph with a 3–0 victory over Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions.
The most dramatic opening game came in 2010, when Angola led Mali 4–0 with 11 minutes remaining, only for Stephen Keshi’s side to storm back and score four times to draw 4–4.
The only edition in which the host nation did not play the opening match was in 1970, when Cameroon and the Ivory Coast kicked off the eight-team tournament in Sudan, followed immediately by the hosts beating neighbours Ethiopia in the second game of the opening double-header.
All AFCON opening matches
1957: Sudan 1–2 Egypt
1959: Egypt 4–0 Ethiopia
1962: Ethiopia 4–2 Tunisia
1963: Ghana 1–1 Tunisia
1965: Tunisia 4–0 Ethiopia
1968: Ethiopia 2–1 Uganda
1970: Cameroon 3–2 Côte d’Ivoire*
1972: Cameroon 2–1 Kenya
1974: Egypt 2–1 Uganda
1976: Ethiopia 2–0 Uganda
1978: Ghana 2–1 Zambia
1980: Nigeria 3–1 Tanzania
1982: Libya 2–2 Ghana
1984: Côte d’Ivoire 3–0 Togo
1986: Egypt 0–1 Senegal
1988: Morocco 1–1 Zaire
1990: Algeria 5–1 Nigeria
1992: Senegal 1–2 Nigeria
1994: Tunisia 0–2 Mali
1996: South Africa 3–0 Cameroon
1998: Burkina Faso 0–1 Cameroon
2000: Ghana 1–1 Cameroon
2002: Mali 1–1 Liberia
2004: Tunisia 2–1 Rwanda
2006: Egypt 3–0 Libya
2008: Ghana 2–1 Guinea
2010: Angola 4–4 Mali
2012: Equatorial Guinea 1–0 Libya
2013: South Africa 0–0 Cape Verde Islands
2015: Equatorial Guinea 1–1 Congo
2017: Gabon 1–1 Guinea-Bissau
2019: Egypt 1–0 Zimbabwe
2021: Cameroon 2–1 Burkina Faso
2023: Ivory Coast 2–0 Guinea
* Sudan were the hosts of this tournament