The State of Play
Equatorial Guinea have guaranteed themselves a place in the top three and with four points in two matches, they will be confident of getting into the knockout stages. However, playing a proactive style of football under the management of Juan Micha, they will be keen on finishing their group stage campaign with a flourish.
They face an Ivory Coast side that, coached by former Girondins de Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne boss Jean-Louis Gasset, were beaten 1-0 by a controversial Nigerian penalty in Abidjan on Thursday. They started with a 2-0 defeat of Guinea-Bissau so will be confident of getting through as a best third placed team at a minimum but are under a little bit of pressure.
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Team News
The only potential selection issue for Equatorial Guinea in this final group stage encounter is the fitness of right-back Carlos Akapo. However, they will want to remain unchanged for this one after their impressive 4-2 defeat of Guinea-Bissau on Thursday.
Ivory Coast have a couple of injury concerns. Striker Sebastian Haller is still likely to be unavailable or at least unable to play from the start. Captain Serge Aurier was substituted in the second-half against Nigeria but he is expected to remain in the side.
Expected Line-ups
Equatorial Guinea: Owono; Akapo, Orozco, Coco, Ndong; Ganet; Salvador, Bikoro, Machin, Miranda; Nsue
Ivory Coast: Y. Fofana; Aurier, Diomande, Ndicka, Konan; S. Fofana, Sangare, Kessie; Kouame, Krasso, Boga
What they Said
Juan Micha heaped praise onto his players after their rout of Guinea-Bissau. “I am very happy, we had a complete victory”, he said.
Jean-Louis Gasset said his players didn’t match the Nigerians physically in their 1-0 loss the other day, analysing The Super Eagles’ performance as very defensive: “It was a very physical match; Nigeria chose to play very low with a five-man defence to exploit counterattacks with their star striker. It was a tightly contested match.”
When and How to Watch
The game at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium will kick off at 20:00 on Monday January 22nd and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Subscribers to Sky Sports can alternately stream the game online via the ‘Sky Go’ app.
Prediction
Equatorial Guinea have been very impressive in this Africa Cup of Nations tournament so far The game at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium will kick off at 20:00 on Saturday January 13th and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Subscribers to Sky Sports can alternately stream the game online via the ‘Sky Go’ app.and they are fighting to win Group A. Juan Micha’s Los Elefantes are playing a fun style of football and they now come up against the hosts that need to win or at least pull off a positive result to ensure things go smoothly into the knockout stages. As a result, it could be quite an entertaining encounter in Abidjan with both teams scoring seeming likely.
