In October, Madagascar celebrated an unlikely sporting success story, as successive 1-0 victories over Equatorial Guinea sealed their place at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

The squad are now hoping their achievement will bring footballing fame to a nation which is internationally associated with DreamWorks' movie called Madagascar .

It was a hugely popular animated film from 2005, and if you search for the country's name online, you get a lot more hits for the adventures of Alex the Lion and his friends than you do for sporting success.

But the turnaround in Madagascar's footballing fortunes is worthy of a film of its own.

In their previous four qualifying campaigns they had won just one of 16 games, finished bottom of their group twice and failed to even advance from the preliminary rounds on the other two occasions.

But after stunning successes in their most recent campaign they have qualified for a major tournament for the first time.