Cameroon and Zimbabwe set the ball rolling on Saturday, January 16 at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium for the opening game of the sixth edition of the African Nations Championship.

Pressure is on the Intermediate Lions of Cameroon to lift the trophy for the first time in the history of the competition and this starts on Saturday against Zimbabwe.

With victory is imperative, both sides will be looking not to start the competition on the back foot, thus adding spice to the game.

Cameroon qualified for the tournament as hosts but have not had the best of preparations leading up to the tournament but hope to be fired up when the first ball is kicked on Saturday. But with no victory in their last three games before the competition, the Indomitable Lions know they have to step up their game if they have to make inroads in the competition.

On their part, Zimbabwe who arrived the country on Thursday will be looking to go past their best performance in 2014 when they reached the semi final.

They blitzed their way through during the qualifiers in the Southern Zone, thrashing Mauritius on a 7-1 aggregate score during the second round and recorded a 3-1 win over Lesotho to qualify for the competition. They had the best forward line in the zone, scoring ten goals and conceding just two.

They have not had a smooth preparation for the competition with nine players testing positive and the whole team forced to isolate for ten days. The massive setback has not deterred head coach Zdravko Logarusic from putting his boys to their paces as they come to Cameroon to go a step further from their 2014 semi final exploits.