A winning start for hosts Ivory Coast as AFCON 2023 kicks off

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 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 2023 

Hosts Ivory Coast opened their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 2-0 win over Guinea-Bissau in Group A on Saturday.

After an impressive, colourful opening ceremony inside a packed Alassane Ouattara Stadium in the capital Abidjan, the Elephants were in front only four minutes into the contest, with Seko Fofana the scorer of this edition's first goal.

A first half of chances so no other goal.

Once the teams returned from the break, it was back to business.

In the 58th minute, Jean-Philippe Krasso displayed superb flexibility to pluck the ball from the air inside the Guinea-Bissau box to acrobatically volley Ivory Coast further into the lead.

Guinea-Bissau tried but failed to find a consolation goal as the Ivorians concluded the contest on a strong note, much to the delight of the home crowd.

A win and three points in the bag is a perfect start for the hosts, who were without their star forward Sebastien Haller.

Ivory Coast have been African champions twice before, most recently in 2015 with a team captained by Yaya Toure, and are hoping to thrive under the pressure of playing at home.

However, they can expect intense competition over the next four weeks with a strong field notably featuring 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco, Mohamed Salah's Egypt, and Sadio Mane's Senegal, who are aiming to successfully defend the title they won in Cameroon two years ago.