Tunisia head coach Jalel Kadri has warned his players the opening matches of the Africa Cup of Nations have already shown they can take nothing for granted in the tournament.

Tunisia are strong favourites for their Group E opener against Namibia, but Kadri pointed to Ghana’s shock defeat to Cape Verde and Mozambique’s draw against Egypt on Sunday when saying that upsets are always possible.

“Namibia is a serious opponent, and we don’t have any easy team,” Kadri said. “The results in the opening rounds have shown that there is no small team in Africa as we saw, so we need to show them respect and play to our best ability. The opening matches have shown that.”

While Tunisia are taking part in their 21st edition of the tournament, Namibia have qualified for only the fourth time in their history. On each of their previous appearances they finished bottom of their group, and they have lost seven of their nine matches.

Tunisia cruised through qualifying, conceding only one goal in six games, but have reason to be wary having failed to win any of their last four opening fixtures at the Africa Cup of Nations.

The goal for the 2004 winners is to improve on last time out, when they reached the quarter-finals, but Kadri must prove wrong a number of doubters back home, and will be without the retired Wahbi Khazri and young midfielder Hannibal Mejbri, who has made himself unavailable to sort out his club future.

“We will try to go as far as possible,” he said. “We have teams that are good quality so we will try to win each match and go as far as possible. We must be respectful to all opponents.

“There are Africa’s best teams that are present, so ours is to do our best in every match and take it game by game.”