The third day of action at the Africa Cup of Nations sees three more title contenders setting out on their journey to what they hope will take them to the title and leave them as champions of the continent out in Ivory Coast.
We have seen a very open and entertaining start to the tournament and you suspect that will only continue over the course of another three matches out in the Ivory Coast on Monday where the defending champions Senegal headline the show.
Senegal vs Gambia (14.00)
The opening match of the day sees the defending champions Senegal getting their title defence underway when they go up against a Gambia side who will just be looking to be competitive and ease their way into the tournament.
Senegal will be expected to dominate the early stages of this event with so many of their squad either currently playing in the Premier League or having done so in their career whereas Gambia have two players in their squad who ply their trade in League Two back in England, which shows the potential gulf on show here. I do think this will be as easy as everything suggests for Senegal but the only market which would interest me is the win to nil one and seeing Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana all concede on Sunday kind of puts me off that. I’ll keep my powder dry in this one.
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Cameroon vs Guinea (17.00)
The second match of a decent looking Monday sees Cameroon looking to showcase their credentials when they go up against a Guinea side who a lot of judges believe could be dark horses in this tournament, largely because of the presence of Serhou Guirassy in their squad.
He has a fitness cloud hanging over him though which immediately puts me off getting involved in this one because the goal output should he not start would be diminished as far as Guinea are concerned. If he doesn’t play I would certainly like the look of Cameroon but even they have their own issues with Andre Onana supposedly said to be expected to less than 24 hours after he played for Manchester United at Old Trafford. This might be one to watch and get stuck into once we have seen the patterns of play but my gut feeling is if Guirassy does play we’ll see some goals here.
Algeria vs Angola (20.00)
The final match of the Monday schedule sees Algeria having the chance to lay down a marker for the tournament when they go up against an Angola side who are the third lowest ranked team in the competition according to the FIFA world rankings.
Angola have appeared at AFCONs past and performed creditably but it is hard to get away from their recent troubles in front of goal. They scored three times in a 3-0 win over Bahrain on Wednesday but prior to that they had notched just once in their last seven games. They only have one member of their squad who have scored double figures for international goals and there is a feeling Angola could really struggle against a potentially vibrant and entertaining Algeria side. I mentioned in my outright preview that Algeria have such resources that they could leave Said Benrahma out of their squad and while the attention will be on the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Islam Slimani and Baghdad Bounedjah but Mohamed Amoura is getting rave reviews out in Belgium. Put simply, I think Algeria will have too much offensive quality for Angola and enough defensive nous to win this with a bit in hand.
Tips
Back Algeria (-1AH) to beat Angola for a 3/10 stake at 2.03 with Bet365
