New era for Nations Cup

South Africa fight Ivory Coast for a final berth

By BBC Sport Online's Mark Gleeson

Follow all the action here LIVE on Saturday and Sunday with commentaries on our feature matches and results and match analysis from every game.

FEATURE MATCHES:
Ivory Coast v South Africa, 1400GMT Sunday (Abidjan)

Angola v Nigeria, 1400GMT Sunday (Luanda)

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Africa's Nations Cup competition begins a new era this weekend.

For the first time preliminary matches have been done away with and the minnows will go straight up against the giants for a place in the finals in Tunisia in 2004.

Opabunmi fires warning shot

It will mean more matches and a better chance for the lesser known countries to make their mark on the continental competition.

Also, for the first time the draw for the competition was not conducted with geographical consideration as the top priority.

Instead Caf seeded all the countries in different categories and then drew out the pairings.

It has meant several potentially exciting combinations, arguably one of the most attractive will see Ivory Coast and South Africa chasing just one qualifying berth from their group.

Nigeria have to get past the improving Angola

Nigeria were also handed a tough assignment with the ever-improving Angola and Malawi in their group.

However Senegal, the runners-up at the last Nations Cup finals in Mali, should barely raise a sweat in getting past Gambia and Lesotho in their group.

A fourth participant Sao Tome has since pulled out because of financial concerns, joining Djibouti and Guinea Bissau as those who have withdrawn.

Somalia was the only country that did not enter the preliminaries.

The winners of each of the 13 groups will join hosts Tunisia and holders Cameroon in the finals in 2004.

The other place will be taken up by the best runner-up in groups 2-9, determined by the side with the most number of points.

So all bodes well for a potentially explosive and competitive round of qualifying, which will conclude in July 2003.