Tunisia vs Namibia prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations betting tips on match 2024-01-15 17:00.
Tunisia (FIFA rank: #28) haven’t won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) since they hosted the tournament back in 2004 and their latest bid to add to that sole title begins against a Namibia side making their fourth appearance at the finals. As the North Africans aim to better reaching the quarter-finals two years ago, they do so on a decent four-match unbeaten run without conceding (W3, D1).
That’s the sort of form that will have onlookers and fans expecting them to make a better job of the group stage – where they’ll also play Mali and South Africa – than they did in 2022 when they scraped into the knockouts having won just once (L2). A winning start will be expected given the Eagles of Carthage have won all three prior H2Hs, scoring an average of 2.67 goals per game.
But the last of those meetings was back in 2007 and Namibia (FIFA rank: #115) will come into this tournament with high hopes, especially after beating Cameroon 2-1 in qualification and drawing 0-0 with Ghana in the build-up. They’ve lost just one of their last five matches (W1, D3) so are also in reasonable form as they target a first-ever AFCON finals win (D2, L7).
Having lost all three of their AFCON group-stage openers (two to Morocco, one to Ivory Coast), that’s another trend Collin Benjamin’s side will be desperate to end, even though they’ll start as big outsiders. Three of their last five fixtures finished goalless (W1, D3, L1), so it’s fair to say goalscoring could be a problem for the tournament’s fourth-lowest FIFA-ranked side.
Players to watch: Captain Youssef Msakni netted four times after the 50th minute across Tunisia’s last three competitive internationals while Namibia’s Prins Tjiueza has three goal contributions (G2, A1) across his last seven international appearances, including games for both senior and U20 sides.
Hot stat: No team conceded fewer goals in AFCON qualification than Tunisia (one).