Burkina Faso vs Mauritania prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations betting tips on match 2024-01-15 14:00.
Having only got past the group stage once in their first seven attempts at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) under their current name, Burkina Faso have improved significantly since, sensationally reaching the final in 2013 before finishing third and fourth at the 2017 and 2021 tournaments respectively.
Under the tutelage of French manager Hubert Velud, the Stallions will hope to again impress at the continent’s showpiece sporting event, having lost just twice against African opposition across their last 13 such matches (W7, D4). One of those victories happened to come against their opening opponents at this tournament, Mauritania, a result that extended their unbeaten H2H run to four games (W3, D1) in the process, which should give the Stallions confidence of starting their campaign this time around in successful fashion.
As would be expected given their relative histories, Mauritania undoubtedly go into this fixture as the underdog, having failed to reach an AFCON knockout phase in their only two previous tournament appearances in 2019 and 2021. That said, with Amir Abdou now at the helm, the man who guided Comoros to their first AFCON finals at the last edition, the Lions of Chinguetti will be optimistic about their chances of creating history during this edition of the competition.
A gritty 0-0 friendly draw against Tunisia earlier this month underlined that Mauritania are capable of causing some surprises in a tough group which also contains Angola and Algeria. By contrast though, they haven’t found the net in any of their last three matches, coincidentally scoring most recently in that aforementioned meeting with Burkina Faso, which took place back in October.
Players to watch: Mohamed Konaté may have only scored three times in 21 caps for Burkina Faso, but two of those goals came in the two games against DR Congo and Iran leading into the team’s AFCON curtain raiser here. The last Mauritania player to find the net internationally was Pape Ibnou Ba, whose last five goals for club and country have all arrived after the hour mark.
Hot stat: Burkina Faso have scored in the first half in each of their last five AFCON group encounters.