Low Odds, High Odds: Four AFCON Tips - 25/1/22

On Tuesday, Senegal take on Cape Verde at in the Round of 16 at this year’s AFCON in Cameroon looking to advance to the quarter-finals having finished as runners-up in this competition in 2019.

Senegal come into this match having advanced as winners of Group B with just five points to their name having drawn 0-0 with both Malawi and Guinea, meaning that Sadio Mane’s 97th-minute penalty against Zimbabwe remains as their only goal of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Cape Verde made it through Group A as one of the best third-place teams following a 1-1 draw last time out with Cameroon, having lost 1-0 to Burkina Faso and beaten Ethiopia 1-0 in their other matches.

So far in AFCON, Aliou Cisse’s men have been low scorers in the competition and have often struggled to play at a high tempo in the soaring heat of Cameroon and will be hoping to see much-improved performances in the knockout stages. This is why a narrow 2-1 victory or 1-1 draw could be likely if they fail to step up their game.

As expected, Liverpool forward, Mane, is their key man and still has their only goal of the competition so far and will undoubtedly have to play a crucial role if his side are to win AFCON for the first time in their history. Mane has scored 26 goals in 80 caps for the Lions of Teranga.

Cape Verde have shown in previous matches against both Cameroon and Ethiopia that they have the potential to score goals, but, a draw was perhaps slightly fortuitous when considering the Indomitable Lions dominance in the match.

As mentioned above, Senegal will be relying on the likes of Mane if they are to go one better than they did at AFCON in 2019 and will ultimately have to improve on their recent performances.

It is often the case that those who start tournaments slowly do often get better as it goes on, as Nigeria found out when they were beaten 1-0 by Tunisia at this stage of the competition with the later mentioned side scraping through in third-place with just three points in Group F. Senegal have won all of the last three meetings between these two sides, but, with it being a knockout tournament there will be less caution to the wind from Cape Verde if they do take the lead in the match.

Next up on this list of low odds and high odds tips sees Morocco face Malawi in the Round of 16, with the Atlas Lions coming into this fixture as firm favourites.

Vahid Halihodzic’s men have been impressive in AFCON so far, topping Group C with seven points having beaten Ghana 1-0 as former Southampton forward Sofiane Boufal scored the only goal of the game, before beating Comoros 2-0 where they had countless chances to score more and drawing 2-2 against Gabon.

On the other hand, Malawi are the underdogs coming into this fixture following their third-place finish in Group B. Ronny Van Geneugden has overseen some impressive results for his men at this year’s AFCON, as The Warm Heart of Africa bounced back from a 1-0 loss to Guinea by defeating Zimbabwe 2-1 and earned an impressive 0-0 draw with Senegal.

A player that has impressed at AFCON is Angers winger, Boufal, as the 28-year-old Paris-born man has scored two goals in three appearances, including the opener against Ghana on matchday one of Group C, averaging a goal every 100 minutes so far.

The final tip on this list also revolves around Boufal as the flair winger who has a whole host of impressive dribbling skills has shown his end product more often than not at AFCON, scoring twice in three appearances.

Boufal, who is formerly of Southampton, Lille and Celta Vigo has scored three times in 25 caps for his national side, taking on the responsibility from Chelsea forward Hakim Ziyech at AFCON who was dropped from Morocco’s side following a fall out with Halihodzic. The 28-year-old has shown his class so far at Cameroon and is priced at 150/1 to score a hat-trick against Malawi.