Since becoming surprise quarter-finalists in the historic 1996 tournament in South Africa, Gabon’s qualification record has been about as worse as it gets.

They failed to qualify at all bar a group stage exit in 2000. So their relatively comfortable passage to Angola must be seen as something of an improvement. They never seriously threatened final qualifying group winners Cameroon’s place in the World Cup Finals. But they edged Togo out of second place in the group and comfortably disposed of former African powerhouse Morocco in the process.

They easily beat Togo in their home qualifier in Libreville last June. And with the perennially disorganised Togolese fielding an ineligible player, Gabon were awarded a convincing 3-0 victory, which would have been a considerable boost to their goal difference…had they not actually won the game 3-0 anyway.

Hull City fringe player Daniel Cousens is the most recognisable member of the playing squad. But the true fame rests with the coach, Alain Giresse, a regular member of the famous French midfield which so dazzled international competition in the early and mid-eighties and took the European nations’ crown on home soil in 1984.

Giresse accompanied Luis Fernandez, Jean Tigana and, of course, the legendary Michel Platini in what became known as the Carre Magique, the “Magic Square.”

Gabon have no such luck, although they do have ten French-based players in their 23-man squad. Giresse has picked four Gabonese domestic players, two from AS Mangasport, who won five domestic titles in the noughties, the last in 2008.

But it is the strikeforce of Cousen and Roguy Meye of controversial Turkish outfit Ankaraspor which represents Gabon’s best hopes of progress to the later stages of the African Nations Cup for the first time in 14 years.