Gabon go into their final African Nations Cup Group A clash with hosts Equatorial Guinea in Bata on Sunday needing a just a point to make sure of a quarter-final place.

They will want to head into the next round in style after a fine opening win over Burkina Faso was followed by a lacklustre second display in defeat to Congo-Brazzaville that showed perfectly the Jekyll & Hyde nature of this Gabon team.

But Equatorial Guinea will have designs on a Last 8 place and could yet top the pool with victory after they opened their campaign with two draws.

Man-for-man Gabon have the better squad, but home-ground advantage and Gabon's flakiness make this a tough one to call.

A draw for Gabon could potentially create a complicated situation if Burkina Faso also beat Congo in the other match in the pool, leaving those two sides and Gabon on four points.

That would create a mini-table using the head-to-head between the trio, where Gabon would be boosted by a positive goal-difference which means they would finish ahead of either Congo or Burkina Faso, one of which will have to either fall (in the case of Congo) or remain (in the case of Burkina Faso) in negative territory.

But what Gabon coach Jorge Costa will hope is that his side do not have to resort to getting their calculators out.

He will expect them to reach the heights they did in their opening win against the Burkinabe, when they were incisive in their attacking and looked as though they could be Dark Horses for the title.

It is obvious that Gabon rely too much on star forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but it is what it is and he acknowledges that his performance against Congo was below the own standards he sets for himself. Expect him to come out firing.

"I was a flop in this match (Congo)," he told reporters. "I must confess. I didn't play as well as I was personally expecting.

"We failed to create and use our own rhythm. We played according to their rhythm and eventually fell into their trap, but the tournament goes on and I believe we can still go through."

Equatorial Guinea were incensed at being denied an opening win against Congo that would have left them in the driving seat after a wrong off-side call from the match officials.

They were on top in that game, but like Gabon failed to reach the same heights in their second against Burkina Faso that ended 0-0.

Certainly they have enough guile in their attack to cause Gabon worries, but equally they can be shaky at the back against genuine quality.

It is unlikely we will see a lot of goals in this one, but the pressure will be on the home side to come out and make the running.