Côte d’Ivoire vs. Egypt – betting tip, prediction, odds for the Africa Cup match (26.01.2022, 17:00 CET)

The penultimate round of sixteen match at the 2021 Africa Cup in Cameroon pits Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt against each other. Thus, the teams ranked 56th and 45th in the FIFA rankings will compete. In other words, on paper, the continent’s number ten and number six teams will clash.

The reality, however, is that Côte d’Ivoire in the preliminary round emerged as favourites to win the tournament. After a working win against Equatorial Guinea, the Elephants in a draw against Sierra Leone squandered the victory only in the final phase. On 20 January, the team of the Frenchman Patrice Beaumelle fixed the first place in Group E with a 3-1 against Algeria.

So, while the Ivorians went above their expectations, Egypt fell short of them in Group D. The Pharaohs, with Portugal’s Carlos Queiroz on the sidelines, started the tournament with a defeat against Nigeria. Unlike Algeria, the Egyptian national team bounced back and defeated Guinea-Bissau as well as Sudan despite mediocre performances.

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What speaks for Côte d’Ivoire?

  • They have clearly performed better in the Africa Cup so far
  • Have gained a lot of confidence and have less to lose than their opponents
  • Scored at least two goals in six of their last eight internationals so far

What speaks for Egypt?

  • Reacted immediately after the initial defeat against Nigeria and celebrated two victories
  • Albeit against sides ranked below Côte d’Ivoire, they did not concede a goal
  • Their opponents did not play to nil in three of their last four games so far
  • An attacking player of Mohamed Salah’s quality can single-handedly decide a game at any time

Our betting tip:

  • Bet: Egypt over 0.5 goals
  • Bookmaker: 1xBet
  • Odds: 1.64

Expert analysis Côte d’Ivoire

For Côte d’Ivoire, the opening match at the AFCON came almost exactly two months to the day after they missed out on qualification for the World Cup finals in Qatar. In this, the Elephants, with the Frenchman Patrice Beaumelle on the sidelines since November 2020, lost the mid-November showdown at 50th-ranked Cameroon 1-2. Before that, the first loss of points came in early September with a 0-0 draw at 118th-ranked Mozambique. Cameroon, on the other hand, suffered their only loss of points in the second round of World Cup qualifying with a 1-2 away defeat to Côte d’Ivoire.

So, Côte d’Ivoire compete in the Africa Cup in the country where they failed to qualify for the World Cup for the second time in a row. There, Beaumelle’s side started into the tournament with a 1-0 win over 114th-ranked Equatorial Guinea on 12 January. Max Gradel of Sivasspor scored the goal in the fifth minute.

Four days later, the Ivorians came within a whisker of advancing to the last sixteen. The Elephants conceded a 93rd-minute equalizer in a 2-2 against Sierra Leone, the 108th-ranked team in FIFA’s rankings. Earlier, Ajax’s Sébastien Haller, who leads the UEFA Champions League scoring charts, and Arsenal’s Nicolas Pépé twice gave Côte d’Ivoire an advantage.

Pépé then scored the third goal in a 3-1 on 20 January against 29th-ranked Algeria, who were eliminated from the 2019 Africa Cup with one point as the group bottom. Before that, two other stars, AC Milan’s Franck Kessié and PSV Eindhoven’s Ibrahim Sangaré, provided a 2-0 interval lead. The Desert Foxes were a shadow of their former selves in Group E at the AFCON, but Côte d’Ivoire scored at least two goals for the sixth time in eight international matches.

Now, the Africa Cup tasks will certainly not get any easier. However, the Elephants exceeded expectations by finishing first in the preliminary round, giving them confidence. But they will have to hope that their goalkeeper Badra Sangaré is as strong as he was against Equatorial Guinea and Algeria. Against Sierra Leone, the player of the South African second division club JDR Stars caused the late equalizer.

Expert analysis Egypt

Unlike Côte d’Ivoire, their round of sixteen opponents Egypt punched their ticket to the 2022 World Cup play-offs. Here, the Pharaohs were the only team in Group F to remain unbeaten in all six of their matches, winning four and drawing two. Strictly speaking, the point losses came at 89th-placed Gabon in early September and at 126th-placed Angola in mid-November. Then the Pharaohs, who presented Portuguese team coach Carlos Queiroz after the draw against Gabon, picked up a 2-1 home win over the same opponents at the end.

A few weeks later, Egypt took part in the Arab Cup in Qatar, with Queiroz going there with a much-changed team. The Portuguese did not exclusively do without Mohamed Salah from Liverpool and the other stars who are under contract in Europe. In the end, the Pharaohs had to settle for fourth place. The first defeat in two and a half years came against 30th-placed Tunisia. Then Egypt had to admit defeat to Qatar in a penalty shoot-out.

With the Egyptian national team fielding its best possible squad at the Africa Cup, expectations were high. That made the 0-1 loss to Nigeria in their opener on 11 January all the more surprising. The 36th-ranked Super Eagles are anything but an easy opponent, but their tournament preparation was far from ideal.

Thereafter, Egypt, unlike Algeria, bounced back and celebrated two 1-0 working victories against Guinea-Bissau and on 19 January against Sudan. The Pharaohs were not convincing either against the 106th-ranked or the 125th-ranked team. However, Salah and Mohamed Abdel Monem, who plays in his home country for Future, pulled the chestnuts out of the fire. Still, there is no question that they will have to step it up a notch in the knockout stage.

Head-to-head comparison Côte d’Ivoire – Egypt

The most recent match between Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt took place in Abu Dhabi in January 2013. The first mentioned team won the international friendly match 4-2. On the other hand, Côte d’Ivoire lost 1-4 to Egypt in their last competitive match to date, which took place in the semi-finals of the 2008 Africa Cup in Ghana.

Our betting tip and the best odds

Before the AFCON, Côte d’Ivoire would have gone into the match against Egypt as underdogs. After the preliminary round, the tide turned as the Elephants’ performances made them one of the title favourites. And they came close to finishing the preliminary round with the full number of points. Egypt celebrated two working victories recently, but the Pharaohs were not convincing.

Nevertheless, we expect the attacking unit around Salah to manage at least one goal in the round of sixteen as well. After all, Côte d’Ivoire conceded at least one goal in three of their last four appearances so far. Sierra Leone even scored twice.

Côte d’Ivoire vs. Egypt – betting tip: Egypt over 0.5 goals, odds 1.64 at bookmaker 1xBet

Alice Kopp
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By Alice Kopp

Alice is half Austrian and half Italian. That's why she experienced the 1990 World Cup in Italy at first hand. And that awakened her enthusiasm for football. Since she has loved writing since childhood, Alice began to study journalism while still at school. It was very convenient for her that her class took part in a project of a German daily newspaper. She was also allowed to write for the children's pages of an Austrian daily newspaper and to get a taste of the sports department of the same medium. This is how she received her first press accreditations, which was of course anything but a matter of course for the then 18-year-old. Although she was partly advised against it, Alice decided to study journalism and communication sciences. After a few years, she decided to use the exams she had taken as an elective. Nevertheless, she applies the knowledge she has acquired in her further professional life. The same applies to her language skills. In addition to her mother tongues German and Italian, Alice is also proficient in English and Spanish. She also understands French and can use this language in research. During her studies, Alice was involved in an Austrian football club. At the same time, she wrote for a total of three Austrian portals and worked as an Austria correspondent for an Italian-language online medium. This collaboration started during Giovanni Trapattoni's era at Red Bull Salzburg and continued during EURO 2008. This gave her the opportunity to interact with Trapattoni as well as with Italian journalists. From the following year, Alice initially worked with a Swiss portal before discovering sports betting content for herself. On the one hand, this kept her in sports journalism, and on the other, it broadened her horizons. And that both in the context of the sports betting industry and with other sports as well as countries. In the field of sports journalism, she focused in particular on football from around the world, volleyball and beach volleyball. In addition, she naturally wrote several guides, bookmaker profiles, bonus articles and other content for betting enthusiasts. She did this for the same company for about ten years, writing articles in German and Italian. She also built the Italian-language website together with the managing director. Meanwhile, Alice started working with another Austrian football club. Furthermore, she joined the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS) in 2016. This gives her the opportunity to watch teams and athletes on the ground relatively often. Not only sports betting, but also radio In January 2019, the next step in her professional development followed. For: she started creating premium content on the topic of sports betting. In the process, she finally put out feelers to almost all countries and all continents. And this was not least due to the fact that both German and English-speaking users subscribed to her content. Nevertheless, Alice continued to use her knowledge of Italian, among other things. On the one hand, because she regularly exchanges ideas with Italian colleagues, and on the other, because she works with a web radio station. The Corona crisis had a strong impact on the sports world and on interest in sports betting, primarily in the early days. Therefore, a fresh start was necessary and, on balance, Alice found the fields of activity that suited her best. She also writes articles for an agency on almost all disciplines as well as on eSports and content for a German online medium. Alice is half Austrian and half Italian. That's why she experienced the 1990 World Cup in Italy at first hand. And that awakened her enthusiasm for football.