Co-hosts Gabon start their AFCON 2012 campaign against Niger on Monday. The bookmakers have priced Gabon up as firm favourites against a side who qualified at the expense of Bafana Bafana, will that favouritsm be justified?

Gabon will no doubt represent something of an unknown quantity to many of us so a quick heads up their profile here is worth a read. Much will be expected from The Panthers on home soil with qualification from the group a minimum expectation. They have to contend with North African nations Tunisia and Morocco later in the group so this opening game against outsiders Niger is of huge significance. Gabon didn't make it out of the group stage in the Angola 2010 finals and as co- hosts this time around, they did not need to take part in qualifying. That makes them especially hard to assess and warm up games including a 0-0 draws with Burkina Faso and tournament outsiders Sudan also gave us little insight into their chances of going deep in the tournament. Going back to the 2010 finals Gabon were just edged out for a place in the knockout rounds despite finishing on the same number of points as Cameroon and Zambia. The Panthers started with a 1-0 win over Cameroon, drew 0-0 with Tunisia and blew their chances in a 2-1 loss to Zambia in the final group match.

Niger were the surprise qualifiers from Bafana's group which also included serial AFCON winners Egypt as well as Sierra Leone. The group was decided on head to head criteria with Niger edging out Bafana and Sierra Leone mainly thanks to their home form which included three straight wins. The other side of the coin is that Niger lost all three of their away fixtures and there is no doubt they looked a poor side on their travels. Warm up matches included a 1-1 draw with Botswana and 3-1 win over Cameroon which will have done confidence no harm even though the Cameroon side were far from full strength.

Gabon won a friendly international played in Nice last year 1-0 in the only previous meeting between the teams.

The Betting, Match Result

Gabon 6/10 Hollywood, Sportsbet, World Sports Betting

Draw 29/10 BetXchange

Niger 13/2 BetXchange

Selected Others

Double Chance Draw/Niger 13/10 Sportsbet

Over 2.5 goals 15/10 World Sports Betting

Half Time Result Draw 12/10 Sportsbet

HT/FT Gabon/Gabon 15/10 BetXchange, Sportsbet, Ladbrokes

Note, odds are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change. Not all bookmakers had priced up at the time of writing and many more markets are available. Watch out for the option to bet “in play” where available

Analysis

I'm inclined to go with the home side even though they look pretty short in the match result betting market. If Niger can reproduce the form they showed in home qualifiers I will be in trouble but Gabon came out of the blocks quickly in 2010 against stronger opposition than this and they are now playing on home soil. I'll speculate with home dominance in the HT/FT market

Bet: HT/FT Gabon/Gabon 15/10 BetXchange, Sportsbet, Ladbrokes

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