With the first round of games now completed, the pressure has started to rise with just two games remaining in this year’s AFCON group stage to gain a qualifying spot to the knockout rounds. Group A will once again kickstart the round of games, with Equatorial Guinea first taking on Guinea-Bissau. The second of the games will host what was anticipated to be the two favourites to progress from the group as Ivory Coast take on Nigeria.
You can bet on over 200 markets per game during AFCON here at Bet9ja!
Ivory Coast vs Nigeria
Thursday 18th January, 18:00
Stade Robert Champroux
This year’s Africa Cup of Nations hosts Ivory Coast started their campaign off in the perfect way with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau. Seko Fofana got the scoring started after just four minutes with a beautiful curled effort into the far-right corner, before Jean-Philippe Krasso scored in the 58th minute to make it two.
This win has kept Ivory Coast’s impressive run of form coming into the tournament going with them now winning all of their last four across all competitions, while they are also unbeaten in their last seven.
Les Elephants will now set about winning their opening two games in an AFCON tournament for the first time since 2013, with the knowledge that a victory and three points would already guarantee themselves a place in the knockout rounds of the tournament.
Nigeria, however, will be hoping to spoil the hosts party as they look to kickstart their tournament with a victory against the current group leaders. The Super Eagles failed to beat Equatorial Guinea in their opening game, having initially gone 1-0 down before Victor Osimhen equalised after just two minutes. This leaves Nigeria under heavy pressure to get a victory in this game otherwise they face the possibility of crashing out in the group stages for the first time since 1982, after being touted prior to the tournament as one of the favourites to go and win the whole thing.
Winning against the hosts will be no easy task though, with Ivory Coast now five group stage games without defeat and have impressively lost just two games in any AFCON group since winning the tournament in 2015.
The Super Eagles form coming into this game will not provide any extra confidence either with Jose Peseiro’s side currently on a four-match winless streak, last recording a win against Mozambique in November 2023.
Bet9ja Tips
While Nigeria may have failed to beat Equatorial Guinea in their opening game, it was no fault to their performance as they created more than enough chances to take the victory in that game. 19 shots and seven on target showed a clear style of play that helped them dominate the game, and if not for bad finishing then they would have comfortably taken three points.
In comparison, Ivory Coast may have taken the victory but their game proved to be far more equal than Nigeria’s. Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau shared the same number of shots throughout the match (10), with Ivory Coast having just one more on target than their opponents despite going on to win 2-0.
If Nigeria are able to carry this type of performance into the game against the hosts then they will be confident that the goals will eventually come, especially for Osimhen who was unusually wasteful in the opening game. For this reason, we are backing Nigeria to get their own party started with a victory in this one and you can get odds of this to happen of 3.85 with Bet9ja.
BOOKING CODE – 62NBGFK
As mentioned, Osimhen was uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal against Equatorial Guinea with two big chances missed and four shots off target. However, getting this number of chances will come as a positive to Nigeria and we expect Osimhen will find his shooting boots in this one and score again for the Super Eagles. You can get odds of Osimhen to score anytime of 3.25 with Bet9ja.
BOOKING CODE – 62NBK3D
