The stage has been set and battle lines have been drawn.
The Warriors of Zimbabwe kick start their AFCON 2025 camping at the Stadia de Agadir against one of the pre-tournament favorites Egypt.
Kickoff is at 21h00 local time 20h00 GMT.
The Pharaohs, the most successful team in the continental spectacle’s history having won it seven times and been in the final ten times, will stand in the way of Zimbabwe’s quest to get a positive result in the first Group B match.
This will be the 14th meeting between the two sides, with Pharaohs dominating the head to head, having triumphed on 8 occasions.
Four matches have ended in draws while Zimbabwe have been victorious once.
The two sides first met at the AFCON finals in 2004 edition at the Sfax Stadium in Tunisia, with legendary former Warriors captain Peter Ndlovu firing Zimbabwe ahead, before Tamer Abdel Hamid and Mohamed Barakat completing the turnaround for Egypt to eventually win 2-1.
Egypt and Zimbabwe met again in the 2019 finals in Egypt and the host emerged victorious courtesy of a 41st minute goal by Mahmoud Trezeguet.
Egypt have won all of the last six clashes between the two sides and undefeated in the last ten.
Zimbabwe’s last and only victory over Egypt came in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers, as the Warriors, then under the tutelage of the late Reinhard Fabisch, won 2-1.
