Ghana not among Afcon 2019 favourites - Desailly

French World Cup winner of Ghanaian descent Marcel Desailly believes Ghana could be among the surprise teams at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Egypt having lost the status of their favourite due to disappointments in recent times.

The Black Stars, semi-finalists in the last six editions of the tournament and finalists in 2010 and 2015, are hoping to beat 23 other nations to win their first title since 1982.

The tournament opened on Friday with the hosts beating Zimbabwe 1-0 in Cairo.

“In the previous African Cup of Nations, we were really hoping to win it because we were one of the favourites but you can see nothing happened," 1998 World Cup winner Desailly told Zylofon FM in Ghana.

"This time, you can see we are not one of the favourites

“Our status as underdogs allows us to work in a better way to be one of the surprise teams of this tournament, so we hope that they prepare very well.

“They [team] were in Dubai [United Arab Emirates] to prepare physically because you know its key at the beginning of the tournament

"I’m confident that they [Ghana] can be a surprise of this tournament."