The national tournaments have kicked off with a bang and its already matchday three in the African Cup of Nations. A lot is at stake as this will be the last and deciding game for the group stages.
AFCON Group A clash between Equatorial Guinea and the tournament hosts, Ivory Coast, will take place on 22nd of January at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpé. The timing for the fixture is 5 PM GMT.
Previous fixtures – Last 5 Games & Head-to-Head
Equatorial Guinea’s last 5 games: W D D W W
Ivory Coast’s last 5 games: L W W W W
In head to head terms, the team have met three times before. Two of those occasions have been during the AFCON tournaments. It has been a very host-favored matchup, with Ivory Coast winning two and drawing one match.
Team News
Ivory Coast have some good news in their camp with Sebastien Haller and Simon Adingra fit and ready to work according to the coach Jean-Louis Gasset. Les Éléphants have been missing the Dortmund striker with an ankle injury.
For Guinea, midfielder Pablo Ganet is a doubt after picking up an injury in the previous game vs Guinea-Bissau. Josete Miranda played the last instead of Jannick Buyla and managed to score a goal. This could mean he keeps a place in the starting XI.
Where the game will be decided
Ivory coast are not doing so well with regards to their position in the group. They are on the verge of being knocked out as of now, sitting at the 3rd place. A draw for Equatorial Guinea on the other hand is all that is needed for them to qualify.
The game will be decided probably in the defensive half for the host nation. With in form Nzalang Nacional attack, it will be hard for Ivory Coast to deter Equatorial Guinea from scoring. Nottingham Forrest right back and national team captain Serge Aurier will be looking to leading the defence to make it to the knockout stage.
It is a do-or-die match for Ivory Coast and they are going in to the game to claim victory. They are coming into this match on the back of a 1-0 loss versus Nigeria. On the other hand Equatorial Guinea have gone unbeaten in this competition and are on top of the table, so a loss doesn’t seem a likely outcome for them either. This makes us consider draw as a possible outcome for the match. The odds are very good for this outcome as bookmakers are in favor of hosts winning it.
With Sébastien Haller making a return, Cote d’ivoire’s toothless attack will gain an all important anchor to play off of. Haller hasn’t played for last couple of games for his nation but had scored in the World Cup qualifier game for them. He will be eager to put his name on the scoresheet and with him being the designated penalty taker with a 28-2 record, we favor him to score at anytime during the match.
For Equatorial Guinea, Emilio Nsue scored a hat-trick in the previous match against Guinea-Bissau. The team also scored 4 goals in total and managed a 1-1 draw vs Nigeria. This makes us believe that this is going to be a goal fest game from them too. Taking chances on Both teams to score makes for a good bet in our opinion.
Both teams have been very disciplined in regards to getting cautioned. In the tournament, they both have 6 cautions in total combined. Looking at this, we recommend to try your luck on Under 3.5 cards to be brandished.
With both teams to score and trying to win, we predict a 2-2 draw scoreline at the end of the game. This Equatorial Guinea will be happy with the result if they can’t secure a win as this still qualifies them. So, putting your money on a total 4 goals exact could be risky but rewarding outcome.
If you fancy a player based bet, we recommend looking at Equatorial Guinea midfielder Jose Machin. The player has been on fire lately, assisting in each of the last 2 games. He has created 4 chances and made 8 recoveries in those games too. Considering this will be an attacking box-to-box game, more than 2 chances created by the player is a good ace to have in your pocket.
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