AFCON 2024 – Guinea: Squad, group, opponents & schedule

Guinea kicked off their AFCON 2024 campaign last week.

In this piece, we'll provide all the information you need to know about their group opponents, schedule and squad.

For the record, this year's competition is officially named AFCON 2023 since it was initially scheduled to take place last year but was postponed until January-February 2024.

Guinea's AFCON 2024 schedule

Guinea are drawn in Group C, where they'll face Cameroon, Gambia and Senegal. The Syli National will play all three group games at the Stade Charles-Konan-Banny (20,000 seats) in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast. On that note, this is what Guinea's AFCON 2023 schedule looks like:

15 January, 6 pm: Cameroon vs Guinea, (Charles-Konan-Banny Stadium)
19January, 9 pm: Guinea vs Gambia, (Charles-Konan-Banny Stadium)
23 January, 6 pm: Guinea vs Senegal, (Charles-Konan-Banny Stadium)

How did Guinea qualify for AFCON 2024?

Guinea faced Egypt, Malawi and Ethiopia in the qualifying rounds of this tournament. They finished second in Group D, accumulating 10 points from a possible 18 (W3-D1-L2). These are Guinea's results in the qualifying rounds:

Game 1: Egypt (1-0) Guinea
Game 2: Guinea (1-0) Malawi
Game 3: Guinea (2-0) Ethiopia
Game 4: Ethiopia (2-3) Guinea
Game 5: Guinea (1-2) Egypt
Game 6: Malawi (2-2) Guinea

Guinea's last 10 matches before AFCON 2024

Botswana (1-0) Guinea – 2026 World Cup Qualifiers
Guinea (2-1) Uganda – 2026 World Cup Qualifiers
Guinea (1-1) Gabon – Friendly
Guinea (1-0) Guinea-Bissau – Friendly
Malawi (2-2) Guinea – AFCON 2023 Qualifiers
Brazil (4-1) Guinea – Friendly
Guinea (1-2) Egypt – AFCON 2023 Qualifiers
Ethiopia (2-3) Guinea – AFCON 2023 Qualifiers
Guinea (2-0) Ethiopia – AFCON 2023 Qualifiers
Ivory Coast (3-1) Guinea – Friendly

Can Guinea advance to AFCON 2024 quarter-finals?

Although Guinea reached the knockout stages in the previous two editions of AFCON, they crashed out in the round of 16 on both occasions. The Syli National will hope to go a bit further this time. Interestingly, the last time Guinea reached the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations was in 2015, where they suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of eventual finalists Ghana.

While Guinea have never won an AFCON title, it's fair to point out that they were finalists in 1976. That said, this is a very talented team, but they'll need to get out of the ‘group of death' unscathed. T

he Syli National will hope Serhou Guirassy proves to be as prolific as he has been with Stuttgart this season, and they'll also hope to avoid injuries to some of their key players.

Guinea's coach: Kaba Diawara

Kaba Diawara took charge of Guinea's national team in October 2021, succeeding former Togo coach Didier Six. He played for the Syli National between 2004 and 2009, scoring 11 times in 29 appearances.

The former Arsenal and PSG player guided Guinea to a round-of-16 berth in the previous edition of this tournament. He'll hope to steer the team to the knockout stages for the third consecutive AFCON event.

Credit: Icon Sport

Player to watch: Serhou Guirassy

Guirassy is currently having the best season of his career. He found the net 17 times in 14 Bundesliga matches so far. Only one player has scored more goals than Guirassy in Germany's top flight.

However, the Stuttgart player scored just once in his last four appearances for Guinea, so it'll be interesting to see how he fares in this tournament.