LIVE: Morocco v Ivory Coast | AFCON 2019 | Egypt

Herve Renard is searching for a hat-trick of titles at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. He’ll join an exclusive club of coaches who have achieved that feat, should he guide Morocco to the trophy win.

He’ll have to get past one of the very teams he made champions when Morocco take on Ivory Coast on Friday.

Both countries launched their campaigns with solitary-goal victories in sweltering mid-afternoon Cairo heat, but the Ivorians will have been the happier side.

While they outmuscled South Africa and should have won by more than a Jonathan Kodjia strike, Morocco laboured to a win that came via a late Itamunua Keimuine own-goal.

Ivory Coast coach Ibrahim Kamara said “the result was more important than the performance. It was critical not to fail in our opening match”.

Rather than slam a lacklustre Moroccan display, Renard hailed Namibia: “They were well organised and coached.”

While both nations should make the last 16, winning the group would set up a fixture against one of the third-place qualifiers while coming second means taking on the Group E winners.