Cape Verde vs Mozambique prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations betting tips on match 2024-01-18 14:00.
The opening round shocks continued at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) when Cape Verde beat a Ghana side who were widely expected to join Egypt in the top two of Group B come the end of this first stage. Mozambique’s 2-2 draw with the Egyptians a few hours prior threw the group wide open and left the impression that there’ll be no such thing as an ‘easy game’ between this particular quartet.
Their manager Bubista hailed it as a “special” win as it was Ghana who eliminated them from the quarter-final stage of their inaugural AFCON appearance (2013), and they’re now potentially already halfway to progressing beyond the group stage for an impressive third time from four attempts. This time, the expectations will be fully upon their shoulders, and an unbeaten record as pre-match favourites across AFCON and World Cup qualifiers last calendar year (W3, D2) suggests that they should handle it well.
After leading for more than half an hour, Mozambique were on the verge of defeating Egypt for the first time in their history, but instead had to settle for a maiden H2H draw after giving away a penalty deep into stoppage time. An uncharacteristically downtrodden head coach Condé Chiquinho couldn’t hide his disappointment at letting two points slip, but took it as a positive that they got into a position to be upset with a draw against the competition’s most decorated side.
Mozambique have still never won at an AFCON finals (D3, L10), which would have made it even more bitterly frustrating to get so close. On a more positive note, it was the fifth time in eight internationals that Mozambique struck the back of the net at least twice, so with some better concentration in defence they can be confident of defying the odds once again to conquer Cape Verde for the first time since 2014 (D1, L2).
Players to watch: Cape Verde’s Jamiro Monteiro has hit a purple patch, with goals in his last two international appearances. Mozambique forward Witi was on the scoresheet not only against Egypt, but also with a stoppage time equaliser against Cape Verde in 2019.
Hot stat: Six of Mozambique’s last eight internationals saw both teams score.