Few have tipped Egypt to retain the African Cup of Nations, but the pundits may be re-evaluating them after their demolition of Cameroon last night. Egypt shrugged off the absence of key players to record a 4-2 victory in Kumasi in the opening game of group C.

Egypt were missing the injured Mido, Ahmed Hassan, their suspended captain, and Hossam Ghaly, who stayed in England to seal a transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to Derby County. But they dominated a Cameroon team featuring Samuel Eto’o, the Barcelona forward.

Defending was Cameroon’s problem. André Bikey, of Reading, gave away an early penalty for handball that was converted by Hosni Abd Rabou. Mohamed Zidan then found the bottom corner and the same player added a fine third shortly before half-time.

Cameroon were sharper in the second period and Eto’o pulled a goal back with a header six minutes after the restart. But with eight minutes left, Abd Rabou was given time to unfurl a superb, long-range effort. A second goal from Eto’o, a penalty in the final seconds, was little consolation.

Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast captain, said that his team will guard against complacency after their 1-0 victory over Nigeria on Monday. Salomon Kalou, his Chelsea teammate, scored the goal. “Of course, beating one of the tournament favourites has boosted our confidence, but we respect every team in this group,” Drogba said. “It’s the media who talk only of Nigeria and Ivory Coast in this group. We are fully aware we are not allowed to fail.” Ivory Coast’s next match in group B is on Friday against Benin. The minnows lost 1-0 to Mali on Monday. “Two years ago we beat Morocco 1-0 in our first game, then we played Libya and everybody said it would be easy,” Drogba said. “We eventually laboured to a 2-1 victory.”

Nigeria expect to bounce back. “We made one mistake and that was the goal. When you make such mistakes, you pay dearly for it,” John Obi Mikel, of Nigeria and Chelsea, said. “We should learn from them and people should take full responsibility. If we can do that, we’ve got a long way to go in this tournament. We just need to concentrate all the time if we want to achieve anything.”

If caution was Drogba’s watchword, Youssef Safri, the Southampton midfield player, talked up Morocco’s chances. “We have good quality in all the departments – defence, midfield and attack,” he said. Morocco began in group A with a 5-1 win over Namibia.

“I think the quality in our team is what made it easy,” Safri, the Morocco captain, said. “It’s exactly the result we wanted. It’s so important to start the tournament with a win.” Soufiane Alloudi, who scored a hat-trick, has a knee injury and is a doubt for Morocco’s match against Guinea tomorrow.

Mehdi Nafti, of Tunisia and Birmingham City, is unlikely to start against Senegal today because of a calf injury suffered against Manchester United this month. Despite reaching the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, Senegal have not won the African Cup of Nations. They boast a formidable attack, with Mamadou Niang, of Marseilles, alongside Diomansy Kamara, of Fulham, and El-Hadji Diouf, the Bolton Wanderers forward.

This evening’s other group D fixture pits South Africa against Angola, whose striker, “Manucho” Goncalves, is joining Manchester United subject to a work permit. Aaron Mokoena, the Blackburn Rovers midfield player, is expected to start for South Africa, despite suffering an ankle injury last week.

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