Monday’s AFCON action comes from Groups A and B and we take a look at all three games including South Africa v Angola
A reminder there are 6 groups, each containing 4 teams. The top 2 in each group will go through to the knockout rounds along with the 4 best third place finishers.
Group A Mali 6/10 Draw 28/10 Zambia 4.75/1
Morocco and Comoros are the other sides in this group and the meet in the opening game on Sunday.
Mali topped their qualification group, unbeaten with 4 wins and 2 draws to finish ahead of Mozambique and Guinea Bissau and Eswatini missed out. Mali scored 10 goals in their 6 qualifiers and their defence was breached just once.
In World Cup qualifying Mali’s record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats was only good enough for third place behind group winners Ghana and Madagascar were runners up.
Zambia also topped their group with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat and in doing so they finished 1 point clear of Ivory Coast with Sierra Leone and Chad filling the minor places. Their only defeat came away to Ivory Coast who they subsequently beat 1-0 in the return.
Zambia won 3 and lost 5 of their WC qualifiers to finish a remote fourth behind Morocco.
The Verdict
You could argue the Zambia came through a tougher qualifying group than Mali but they are very much the underdogs in terms of the match result betting. I can see more scope for goals here than in a number of other group stage first round matches to come and 2-3 in total will do for me.
Bet: Multigoals 2-3 at 19/20 with Sportingbet.
Group B South Africa 15/10 Draw 1.85/1 Angola 21/10
Bafana topped their qualifying group with 4 wins and 2 draws to finish 1 point clear of Uganda and Congo and South Sudan were the also rans. They dropped points at home to Uganda and also in Congo but a tally of 16 goals was way above average.
To add to the feel good factor Bafana have also qualified for the 2026 World Cup finals after topping their group at the main expense of Nigeria.
Angola finished top of the qualification group with the same record as South Africa. Sudan were runners up and Niger were third whilst Ghana were a huge disappointment. They had things under control in winning their first 4 group matches starting with a 1-0 win in Ghana.
Angola were draw specialist in WC qualifying, finishing all square 6 times to finish fourth in a group topped by Cape Verde with Cameroon the runners up.
The Verdict
Bafana are trading at around 25/1 to in the tournament and would appear to be a really good space right now. This won’t be straight forward though as Angola gave very little away in qualifying and have proved they are tough to beat.
I’m thinking it will be tight and will go with no more than a single goal.
Bet: Total goals under 1.5 at 15/10 with Pokerbet
Group B Egypt 7/20 Draw 7/2 Zimbabwe 8.5/1
Egypt won 4 and drew 2 of their qualifiers to top their group ahead of Botswana, Mauritania were third and Cape Verde fourth. They won their first 4 matches scoring 10 goals without conceding before playing out 1-1 draws in Cape Verde and at home to Botswana.
Egypt also made short work of their World Cup qualifying group with 8 wins and 2 draws to qualify automatically for the 2026 finals.
Zim won 2, drew 3 and lost 1 of their qualifiers to finish as runners up to Cameroon whilst Kenya and Namibia were the tams to miss out. The wins both came against Namibia and the only defeat came in the final group match, 2-1 at Cameroon but they had done enough to book their ticket.
Zim were in the same World Cup qualifying group as Bafana but they failed to register a win (5 draws, 5 defeats) and finished rock bottom.
The Verdict
Bar Mo Salah and Omar Marmoush the bulk of the Egypt squad comes from power house local clubs and they will probably have to much for Zim. I’m with Egypt to win with some daylight.
Bet: Handicap, Egypt -1 goal at 11/10 with SuperSportBet
Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change