There are only a few days left until the Africa Cup of Nations, and the participants are putting the finishing touches. In the course of this, on the late afternoon of Wednesday, the friendly match between Algeria and Ghana will take place. The Education City Stadium in the Qatari city of Al Rayyan will host the clash between the teams that occupy the 29th and 52nd place in the FIFA rankings. Or in other words, the third and the eighth-best teams on the continent will compete against each other.
The Algerian national team, coached by Djamel Belmadi, will appear at the AFCON in Cameroon as the defending champions. Although without their stars, the Fennecs won the Arab Cup in December. On the other hand, this will be Ghana’s first international match since mid-November. Most recently, Milovan Rajevac’s squad celebrated their third win in four matches with a 1-0 over South Africa.
What speaks for Algeria?
- The team has more quality
- Most of the stars took part in the preparation for the Africa Cup Nations
- Self-confidence after the Arab Cup triumph
What speaks for Ghana?
- Won three of his last four internationals so far
- Can currently only surprise against Algeria
- Have not conceded a goal in two of their last three appearances so far
For this international match on Wednesday, Algeria vs. Ghana, we have prepared an interesting expert betting tip with the odds of 1.75. One wagering site that offers this football bet is 1xBet.
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Expert analysis Algeria
So Algeria are the defending champions at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Moreover, the team of Djamel Belmadi, who has been coaching the Fennecs since 2018 and thus led them to the title in 2019, recently tanked up on self-confidence at the Arab Cup. This was because the Algerian national team triumphed at the tournament, which also took place in Qatar.
There, they initially finished Group D with seven points and equal with Egypt, with the direct duel ending 1-1. The Desert Foxes then beat Morocco on penalties, followed by a 2-1 against Qatar and in the final a 2-0 over Tunisia. Apart from Senegal and Nigeria, who did not take part in the Arab Cup, Algeria played against the best teams on the continent and remained unbeaten.
And this although Belmadi had to do without all the stars who earn their money in Europe. We mean, among others, the captain Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City and his vice-captain Aïssa Mandi of Villarreal. But the list also includes other players such as Islam Slimani (Olympique Lyon), Sofiane Feghouli (Galatasaray), Ismaël Bennacer (AC Milan) and Ramy Bensebaini (Borussia Mönchengladbach).
The other side of the coin is that most of the top European leagues took breaks. For this reason, except for Mahrez and of another player in the English Premier League, Saïd Benrahma of West Ham United, they were present at least for most of the preparation. However, Belmadi could not take advantage of this as he had hoped. Because: Before Algeria’s test match against Ghana, they planned to play one against Gambia, but the Scorpions cancelled the match at short notice. COVID-19 was the reason for the call-off of the international match that was supposed to have taken place on 1 January.
Expert analysis Ghana
In contrast to Algeria, Ghana played its last international match to date in November. The Black Stars, coached by Milovan Rajevac, competed in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. The Serb, who already managed the Ghanaian national team from 2008 to 2010 and led them to the World Cup in South Africa, succeeded Charles Akonnor in September.
For him, a 1-0 away defeat in a direct World Cup qualifying clash against South Africa, 68th in the world, in September was the nail in the coffin. It was the second defeat in four appearances, following a 1-0 loss to Morocco in a test match in June. In between, they drew 0-0 with 56th-ranked Ivory Coast and won 1-0 with 137th-ranked Ethiopia.
In the four matches since Rajevac’s return, Ghana have remained unbeaten, winning three of them. The only exception, a 1-1 in Ethiopia from mid-November, happened after a 3-1 home win and a 1-0 away victory over Zimbabwe. A few days later, Ghana won the return leg against South Africa. However, results against these teams, and especially those against Zimbabwe, ranked 121st in the FIFA rankings, are not necessarily meaningful.
In addition, most of the Black Stars’ players have played comparatively few international matches. And except for captain André Ayew (Al-Sadd) and Mubarak Wakaso (Shenzhen), the experienced internationals are all under contract in England. Thomas Partey (Arsenal), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace) and Daniel Amartey (Leicester City) are some footballers who were not allowed to fly to the national team until Sunday.
Head-to-head comparison Algeria – Ghana
This represents the third match between Algeria and Ghana since the turn of the century. They last one so far saw then faced at the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea in January 2015. There, Algeria lost 0-1 to Ghana. Before that, a friendly match in December 2001 ended 1-1.
Expert betting tip Algeria – Ghana
Algeria are the clear favourites for the test match against Ghana. As this is the warm-up for the Africa Cup of Nations, we assume that both teams will start with their best possible line-up. Nevertheless, there were often surprises in such matches. Or the favourite had a tougher job than expected.
This is one of the reasons why the experts’ betting tips is that not both teams will score in the match Algeria vs. Ghana. The Desert Foxes did not concede any goals in three of their Arab Cup games. And they achieved that, for example, in the final against Tunisia. Moreover, the Black Stars did not score in three of their four international matches from June to September. Although they netted most recently against Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and South Africa, these fixtures do not represent a real yardstick in this case.
Algeria vs. Ghana – our betting tip: Both teams to score – no, odds 1.75 at the bookmaker 1xBet.
