Africa Cup of Nations 2024 gets under way on Saturday when host nation Ivory Coast take on Guinea Bissau in a Group A clash
Group A will also be contested by Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, the top 2 sides go through to the knockout round along with the 4 best third placed finishers from the 6 groups.
Ivory Coast
The hosts tuned up for the big kick off with a 5-1 win in a warm up match against Sierra Leone with 5 different players on target.
Despite being host nation they did contest qualifying, winning 4 of their matches with 1 draw and 1 defeat to Zambia.
Jean-Louis Gasset is the coach of Ivory Coast, it may come as some surprise that Wilf Zaha has been left out of the following squad which you can view on this link. The most recent of 2 AFCON title came back 2015
In the last finals staged in Cameroon Ivory Coast were 1-0 winners over Equatorial Guinea in their opening group match before a 2-2 draw with Sierra Leone and a fine 3-1 win over Algeria. They came up against Egypt in the Round of 16 and lost on spot kicks after a 0-0 draw.
Ivory Coast are priced at around 67/10 to win the tournament with BoyleSports and they are 0.83/1 to top this group.
Guinea Bissau
Guinea Bissau came through qualifying as runners up to Nigeria with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat and their 2 clashes with the Super Eagles were honours even as each nation claim a 1-0 victory away from home. There is little in the way of pedigree when it comes to going deep in AFCON finals as they have failed to make the knockout rounds in 3 attempts which were in the 3 most recent AFCON finals. A recent warm up ended in a 6-2 defeat to Mali.
In the last finals staged in Cameroon Guinea Bissua drew 0-0 with Sudan and then lost 1-0 to Egypt and 2-0 to Nigeria.
Guinea Bissau are priced at around 150/1 to win the tournament with BoyleSports and they are 18/1 to top this group.
Baciro Candé is the coach and he has selected the following squad.
The Betting
Ivory Coast are currently trading at around 1 / 5 to win the game with the draw at 42/10 and Guinea Bissau are priced at around 10.5/1
A game of 3 goals or more in total is priced at 1.03/1 and it's 22/10 for both teams to score.
Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
Verdict:
All the pressure is on the host nation to make a winning start against a Guinea Bissau side who have nothing to lose in a group containing 2 power houses.
It should go the way of the Elephants but although G-B's results in the previous AFCON don't offer much encouragement they might just have a goal in them here,
albeit in defeat and I'll take that outcome to a conservative stake.
Bet: 3 Way & Both Teams to Score , Home win and yes? At 38/10 with BoyleSports
Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
GFTG Newsletter
Subscribe to our free weekly betting mailer which will include our best and value bets below.
