Burkina Faso vs Equatorial Guinea prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations betting tips on match 2025-12-23 12:30.
[p]Neither Burkina Faso nor Equatorial Guinea are among the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) favourites, but both possess credible tournament pedigree and will look to lay down a marker in this Group E opener.[/p]
[p]Match News and Current Form[/p]
[p]After Burkina Faso reached at least the semi-finals in three of their four AFCON appearances between 2013 and 2021, they should be confident of improving on their last-16 exit at the hands of Mali in the 2023 event. They arrive in formidable shape having gone unbeaten across their last six fixtures (W5, D1), scoring at least three times in four of those games. While that bodes well, they have often been slow starters at tournaments, as they’ve only ever won one of their 13 previous AFCON openers, although that solitary success did come in the 2023 tournament.[/p]
[p]This will be Equatorial Guinea’s fifth AFCON appearance, and just the third time they’ve qualified on merit. With three quarter-final appearances already, they have a reputation for punching above their weight, even if they left at the last-16 stage two years ago. They carry little momentum into this fixture, as they’ve won just one of the last five internationals (D1, L3), with one of those defeats coming when they forfeited a World Cup qualifier against Malawi in October after players went on strike. Head coach Juan Michá, who was suspended and then reinstated after that debacle, will hope to inspire the Red Devils to a similar group stage performance to 2023 when they scored nine times while going unbeaten (W2, D1).[/p]
[p]Head-to-Head History[/p]
[p]Burkina Faso are unbeaten and kept clean sheets across all three previous meetings (W1, D2), including a 0-0 draw at AFCON 2015.[/p]
[p]Hot Stats and Streaks[/p]
[p]Burkina Faso scored exactly three times in each of their last three internationals.[/p]
[p]Burkina Faso haven’t scored earlier than the 25th minute in any of their last five games.[/p]
[p]None of Equatorial Guinea’s last four contested games produced over 2.5 goals.[/p]
[p]Equatorial Guinea drew two of their last three AFCON openers 1-1.[/p]
[p]Key Players to Watch and Missing Players[/p]
[p]Pierre Landry Kaboré scored six times across Burkina Faso’s last three games, with four of those strikes coming after the 55th minute. Emilio Nsue is Equatorial Guinea’s record scorer and each of his last eight goalscoring international appearances saw him net his side’s first of the game.[/p]
[p]Neither team appear to have suffered any late injury-related setbacks.[/p]
[p]For all the latest team news, please check the Flashscore match centre.[/p]
[p]Betting Analysis[/p]
[p]With neither side renowned for racing out of the blocks and previous meetings all being low-scoring affairs, our tip is to back the second half being the half with most goals.[/p]
[p][i]Author: John Pennington[/i][/p]