The Portuguese influence in Angola isn’t just confined to the hosts. But that influence may not be strong or last very long.

In footballing terms, Mozambique was never more famous than when its native son Eusebio was terrorising club and international defences throughout the 1960s. Unfortunately, all this was in the shirt of the then-fledgling nation’s colonial masters, Portugal.

And the fact that the current Portuguese side has been guided to the South African World Cup finals by another Mozambiquan, Carlos Quieroz, will provide next to no consolation.

Mozambique qualified for successive African Nations Cup’s in 1996 and 1998, but not since, until now.

They were a distant third to Tunisia and six points behind Nigeria, alongside whom they line up again this month, in the final qualifying group and over-reliant on home form and a firm defence to get them as far as they did.

They only scored three times in six matches and in six away qualifiers overall they only found the net once. They don’t travel well, so it may be just as well that, relatively, they won’t have to travel far to get to Angola.

A surprise result shouldn’t be beyond them, however. They held Cote D’Ivoire to a 1-1 draw in the early qualifying phase and only lost 1-0 away to the Elephants.

The squad is largely domestic or South African-based, with their most capped player and top-scorer, Dario Monteiro – a survivor of the 1998 tournament – the closest to a star player, although captain Manuel Bucuane deserves a little ripple for the name by which he is known, ‘Tico-Tico.’

One goal friendly defeats to tournament outsiders Malawi and Zambia have done little to alter the view that the squad will struggle, and struggle to entertain.