This Sunday, the round of 16 matches of the Africa Cup of Nations begins. Nigeria, the sovereign winners of Group D, will face Tunisia, who only finished third in Group F but qualified for the next round as one of the best third-placed teams. The kick-off is at 20:00 at the Roumdé Adjia Stadium in Garoua. Should the match be cancelled at short notice, bets will be refunded.
By the way, you can find our ranking of the top betting providers in our betting sites comparison for Africa.
What speaks in favour of Nigeria?
- Great self-confidence after 3 victories in the preliminary round.
- Strong attack with the most shots on goal of all teams.
- Individually stronger
- Tunisia is plagued by many Corona cases.
- Have not lost to Tunisia in 17 years
What speaks in favour of Tunesia?
- So far they have sold themselves short
- with many absentees, the team can play without pressure
- Just ahead of Nigeria in the world rankings
Our Betting Tip
- Tip: Nigeria -0.75
- Bookmaker: 1xBet
- Odds: 2.05
The African Cup of Nations is now entering its exciting phase, and one of the top favourites is in the mix: Nigeria! The Super Eagles are the only team to have won all their group matches and conceded only one goal.
Their opponents Tunisia were considered one of the secret favourites before the tournament, but suddenly had many Covid cases in the team. In the end, the Tunisians must be happy to have reached the last 16 at all. They won only one of their preliminary round matches against Mauritania and qualified for the next round as one of the four best third-placed teams. There they will face a team they do not have good memories of – their last win against Nigeria was 17 years ago! But will they even be able to put together a team? With 12 Corona cases in the team, Tunisia’s task will not be easy.
Expert Analysis Nigeria
Nigeria entered the round of 16 without losing a point. True, a win against Guinea-Bissau or Sudan was not a major hurdle. But in their very first match, they met co-favourites Morocco with their star Mohamed Salah – and Nigeria remained victorious, through a goal by their EPL legionnaire Iheanacho.
The Super Eagles have incredible attacking potential for this Cup. Besides Iheanacho, they can call on Awoniyi, who is currently one of the best strikers in the Bundesliga. On the wings, Simon from FC Nantes and Chukwueze, who normally plays for Villarreal in the Primera Division. And that’s where you immediately see the special feature of the Nigerian team: they have spread their top performers across all the major European top leagues and still have some stars sitting on the bench like Umar Sadiq from FC Almeria, Alex Iwobi from Everton or Chidera Ejuke from Spartak Moscow. The Super Eagles of interim coach Augustine Eguavoen are therefore also favourited in the upcoming match against the “Eagles from Carthage”.
Expert Analysis Tunisia
“Les Aigles de Carthage“, as they are also called, had hoped for much more from the tournament in Cameroon. But now all doors are open to them. The Tunisians’ last matches against Gambia or Mali, however, were a big disappointment. Coach Mondher Kebaier’s team must show a completely different face in the match against Nigeria, otherwise, they can go straight back to Tunis.
But Tunisia is currently plagued by a Covid19 outbreak in the squad. Since Friday, 12 players have been out, including normally starting players such as defender Dylan Bronn, left-winger Naîm Sliti and, most notably, star and top scorer Wahbi Khazri, who normally goes on a scoring spree for AS St.Etienne. In the end, Kebaier had only 16 healthy players at his disposal – including two goalkeepers. The Tunisians’ great hope is that some of the players who have been ill for some time will return or turn out to be false negatives.
Head-2-Head & other Stats
The last time Tunisia beat Nigeria was 17 years ago. That was when they met in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. Tunisia won and lifted the cup. After that, however, there was not much to see of the Tunisian national team. Nevertheless, they have established themselves in the top 30 of the Fifa world rankings and are even ahead of their opponents Nigeria.
Nigeria was also the team with the most shots on goal in the preliminary round, thanks to their great skills in the attack: On average, the Super Eagles shot 16 times at the opponent’s goal and were also solid in defence, hardly allowing anything to happen. However, Nigeria showed great weaknesses in the air – only Ethiopia won fewer headers than the Nigerians.A chance for Tunisia?
Our betting tip Nigeria vs. Tunisia
A few slip-ups by Covid have already brought Tunisia to the brink of total embarrassment. But now the virus has struck again. Even without illness in the team, Nigeria would have gone into this game as favourites, but with all the expected lapses, it’s hard to predict any outcome other than a Nigerian win over Tunisia.
We are betting on the Asian handicap at odds of 2.05. If Nigeria wins by a two-goal difference, you get the full stake, and if it is a narrow win, you get half the stake. Alternatively, you can bet directly on Nigeria without a handicap. The odds are in the range of 1.75. However, due to the fast-changing news situation, the odds can also shift.
At 1xBet you can still get good odds for the SuperEagles. Go get them!
