This tournament has been run since 1957 with the 2004 edition being the 24^th time it has been held. This tournament is bi-annual and is held in the early part of the year when most European countries are in winter break. The tournament was hosted in 2004 by Tunisia..

Ghana, Cameroon and Egypt have won the tournament the most, both with four triumphs. The other tournament winners have been spread over a wide amount of countries as shown below.

Cameroon were aiming to become the first ever nation to win three consecutive and five total African Nation Cups. They topped their group but were knocked out in the quarter-final stage by the unpredictable Nigerian side. The other three group winners were home side Tunisia, Mali and Morocco. All three progressed to the semi-finals along with Nigeria. Similarly to the 2002 tournament, Mali and Nigeria were knocked out in the semi-finals but unlike last time Nigeria won the third-place play-off. Tunisia won their first ever African Nations Cup by defeating Morocco in the final. This was the first all-Arab countries final for many years .

Group Stage

Group A

24/1 Tunisia          2-1 Rwanda

25/1 DR Congo    1-2 Guinea

28/1 Rwanda        1-1 Guinea

28/1 Tunisia          3-0 DR Congo

  1/2 Tunisia          1-1 Guinea

  1/2 Rwanda        1-0 DR Congo

Group B

26/1 Senegal          0-0 Burkina Faso

26/1 Kenya           1-3 Mali

30/1 Senegal          3-0 Kenya

30/1 Burkina Faso 1-3 Mali

  2/2 Senegal          1-1 Mali

  2/2 Burkina Faso 0-3 Kenya

Group C

25/1 Zimbabwe     1-2 Egypt

25/1 Cameroon     0-0 Algeria

29/1 Cameroon     5-3 Zimbabwe

29/1 Algeria          2-1 Egypt 

  3/2 Cameroon     0-0 Egypt

  3/2 Algeria          1-2 Zimbabwe

Group D

27/1 Nigeria         0-1 Morocco

27/1 South Africa 2-0 Benin

31/1 Nigeria         4-0 South Africa

31/1 Morocco     4-0 Benin

  4/2 Morocco     1-1 South Africa

  4/2 Nigeria        2-1 Benin

Quarter-Finals

  7/2 Tunisia         1-0 Senegal

  7/2 Mali             2-1 Guinea

  8/2 Cameroon    1-2 Nigeria

  8/2 Morocco      3-1 Algeria

Semi-Finals                                            PENALTIES

11/2 Tunisia         1-1 Nigeria                        5-3

11/2 Mali             0-4 Morocco

3rd-Place Play-Off 

13/2 Nigeria         2-1 Mali          

Final  

14/2 Tunisia          2-1 Morocco

Morocco were the surprise team of the tournament and although they did not win it was a big improvement on past efforts. In recent years Morocco had underperformed at the African Nations Cup, and had a young team. Their prolific attack led to Morocco's best performance in years despite the inexperience of the side, but they could not perform at their best in the final. Roger Lemerre, who had helped France win Euro 2000, was the coach of Tunisia, and helped the home team to their first triumph in the tournament. Jay-Jay Okocha, the only player left from Nigeria's 1994 tournament victory, was in good form helping Nigeria to third place with four goals. Frederic Kanoute was a former French U/21 international but the change in FIFA's rules regarding eligibility allowed him to switch nationality to Mali and he also scored four goals in the tournament.  

Top Goalscorer

4 - Patrick Mboma             - Cameroon

4 - Frederic Kanoute          - Mali

4 - Jay-Jay Okocha            - Nigeria

3 - Francileudo dos Santos - Tunisia

3 - Peter Ndlovu                 - Zimbabwe

3 - Osaze Odemwingie        - Nigeria

3 - Youssef Mokhtari          - Morocco

3 - Youssef Hadji                - Morocco

3 - Marouane Chamakh      - Morocco

3 - Titi Camara                   - Guinea

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