Equatorial Guinea vs Ivory Coast prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations betting tips on match 2024-01-21 17:00.
Group A of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is set to go down to the wire, with table-toppers Equatorial Guinea taking on third-place and tournament hosts Ivory Coast in the final round to decide who automatically progresses to the knockout rounds. Equatorial Guinea sit on four points thanks to a 1-1 draw with Nigeria before putting the hammer down with a 4-2 win over Guinea-Bissau, while the Ivory Coast dispatched the latter 2-0 in the tournament opener, but lost out 1-0 to Nigeria last round.
So it’s back to the adopted home of the Stade Olympique Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan, where both these sides have played their last two matches, and the situation is much more straightforward for Juan Michá’s Equatoguineans than it is for Jean-Louis Gasset’s Ivorians. Michá’’s men simply have to avoid defeat to finish in the top-two and avoid the complications of third-placed teams rankings, thus extending their streak of qualifying for the knockout stages in every AFCON finals they’ve participated in.
They’ve shown they have what it takes to achieve that goal, as they come into this fixture with no losses in their last 12 matches (W6, D6). Ivory Coast have to snap that unbeaten streak to ensure their spot in the next round is booked, or face potentially becoming only the second host nation in the last 15 AFCONs to be eliminated in the group stages.
The Ivorians are well capable of not becoming a notorious statistic, as they were on a four-game winning streak prior to the loss to Nigeria. They may draw even more confidence from the fact they’ve profited from this particular H2H in such a setting before, having won their two previous AFCON meetings with Equatorial Guinea.
Players to watch: Equatorial Guinea captain Emilio Nsue became the first player since 2008 to score an AFCON hat-trick when he rattled three in against Guinea-Bissau – he’s netted the match opener in his last five goalscoring outings for his country. Seko Fofana has been equally influential for the Ivory Coast, since all six of his national goalscoring appearances have ended in victory.
Hot stat: Only three of Equatorial Guinea’s last 15 games have produced more than 2.5 total goals.