The dreaded winter break across all major leagues in Europe is upon us, but the action isn’t stopping at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament.
Today, the mightily impressive Ivory Coast will take on early tournament favourites Egypt at 16:00 UTC. This will be followed by Mali against Equatorial Guinea at 19:00 UTC.
The winners of both games will go through to the quarter finals alongside Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Gambia and Tunisia.
Bookmakers have surprisingly priced Ivory Coast as favourites against Egypt following a strong start to the tournament, they are at 5/4 while Egypt are 14/5 to win in 90 minutes.
Ivory Coast & Egypt have the most number of appearances in AFCON history.
Carlos Queiroz, (Coach, #TeamEgypt)
“Against Cote d’Ivoire, we will ignore the past to focus on the present. We are going to make sure that the best team on the pitch is Egypt.” #AFCONwithJuliet pic.twitter.com/EDotLG9Eum
— Juliet Bawuah (@julietbawuah) January 26, 2022
Egypt have the pedigree to cause an upset. Former Real Madrid and Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz has experience in big tournaments and will be relying on talisman Mohamed Salah to find the back of the net.
Ivory Coast, meanwhile, have a star-studded squad of players from top European leagues. They have the likes of Franck Kessie from AC Milan as well as Arsenal’s Nicolas Pepe.
While the AFCON tournament has been criticised for a lack of goals, this tie has the potential to be an open, attacking game with odds on both teams to score being priced at 5/4.
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