Just about everything is set for the official start of the African Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea on Saturday.

The past few weeks had seen the sixteen qualified teams honing their skills to do battle once more, for the ultimate prize as the continent for the second time co-hosts the competition after 2000 when Ghana and Nigeria staged the tournament.

Despite the absence of holders Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria and South Africa, the presence of top ranked teams like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Mali and Tunisia more than makes up for the no-show.

With three newcomers appearing at the finals, Botswana and Niger join Equatorial Guinea’s Nzalang National who qualified automatically as the debutants.

And the co-hosts will open the tournament today in Bata against Libya in Group A. Either side is dreaming of a winning start with the hosts offered some $1 million by their government this week to win the tournament’s first match.

The other meeting of the day is the between Senegal and Zambia, both impressive in qualifying, could well decide the top place in the group.

When the first goal at the tournament is recorded, it could start the challenge to surpass the record tally of 99 scored at the finals in Ghana in 2008 in a total of 32 games.