Nigeria vs Equatorial Guinea prediction: AFRICA: Africa Cup of Nations betting tips on match 2024-01-13 14:00.
Three-time Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winners Nigeria headline a strong Group A with host nation Ivory Coast and their first opponents Equatorial Guinea, whose best finish in an AFCON was fourth when they hosted the tournament in 2015. Despite having to contend with a strong home nation in their group and less than impressive lead-in form, the Super Eagles are widely tipped to advance from the group for a 15th consecutive time (excluding AFCONs in which they did not participate).
Their coach José Peseiro is looking to end the nation’s decade-long title drought but won’t be taking any opposition for granted, particularly as Equatorial Guinea went further than Nigeria in the previous edition, despite the Nigerians sweeping their group. Perhaps Peseiro is feeling the humility of having dropped World Cup qualification points to both Zimbabwe (1-1) and Lesotho (1-1) as overwhelming favourites last November, whilst also losing 2-0 to Guinea in their final pre-tournament friendly.
Equatorial Guinea are making just their fourth appearance at the 34th staging of the AFCON, but have made the quarter-finals or better in all three prior. They can perhaps feel aggrieved at having been drawn alongside both Nigeria and Ivory Coast, but former Equatoguinean player and current head coach Juan Michá appears to have his side in strong condition.
Michá boasts an outstanding win rate of 62% in all competitions (excluding friendlies) in charge, which includes AFCON and World Cup qualifiers as well as their run to the final eight in the previous AFCON (January 2022). When including friendlies, Equatorial Guinea remain undefeated across their last ten matches (W5, D5), including a surprise win over Tunisia in qualifying for this particular competition.
Players to watch: There’ll be great expectations of CAF Footballer of the Year Victor Osimhen, who was a key cog of Napoli’s Serie A success last season and scored a hat-trick in his last non-friendly appearance for Nigeria. Equatoguinean forward Emilio Nsue scored in each of their November 2023 World Cup qualification games and comes into this tournament with goals in his last three club matches.
Hot stat: All but two of Equatorial Guinea’s last 13 matches produced under 2.5 total goals.