Beijing time on January 20, today the African Cup of Nations Group E will usher in the third round of competition, this group is currently a death group four teams are still possible to qualify, we will make a simple analysis of these two focus games below.
In the first match, Sierra Leone played against Equatorial Guinea
Sierra Leone ranked 108th in the world, there are no big stars in this team, and the defender who plays for Turkish Super League Gazantep Kork is the team's most expensive player, and its value is only 4.5 million euros, which can be said to be a civilian team. However, it is such a civilian team, in the previous two group matches, but successively with the cup winning big favourites Algeria and Côte d'Ivoire to achieve a draw, sierra Leone is currently in the third place in the group in two matches, if the team wants to get a qualifying place, this game needs to defeat the opponent Equatorial Guinea to get three points.
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In the last match, Sierra Leone was full of fire and played offensive football with Côte d'Ivoire, and finally the two sides shook hands with a score of 2-2 in the 90 minutes of the battle. From the perspective of the game process, Côte d'Ivoire's 433 impact formation achieved a good effect at the beginning of the game, in the 25th minute of the game, the forward player Halle took the lead for Côte d'Ivoire, and Sierra Leone could only spread out the 4231 formation to seek to equalize the score as soon as possible, but Côte d'Ivoire did not shrink the defense after taking the lead but continued to use the personal ability of the three forward players to create a threat to Sierra Leone. Throughout the first half, it can be said that Côte d'Ivoire is a side with a lot of advantages in the field.
At halftime, Sierra Leone obviously had a redeployment in its technical and tactical play, just after the opening Sierra Leone made a fierce attack on Côte d'Ivoire, the team's 4231 formation was raised to play 433 with Côte d'Ivoire, and in the 55th minute of the game, Moussa Noah received a wonderful pass from his teammate and finally equalized for Sierra Leone, but only ten minutes after the equalizer in Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire scored by Pepe with an out-of-bounds opportunity to score the score again. The goal greatly affected Sierra Leone's morale, and the field was very passive at one point, and if it were not for the poor form of several Ivorian strikers in the second half, Côte d'Ivoire would have been able to score at least one or two more goals. In the final moments of the game's injury time, a dramatic scene occurred, Sierra Leone had a player in Côte d'Ivoire injured in the half, the referee blew a halt to the game to let the player receive treatment, after a short period of treatment the game restarted, Sierra Leone chose to serve the set-piece fast, the team's striker Kamara after receiving a pass from his peers got up and shot angrily to rewrite the score to 2-2 draw again, because at this time the injury time has come to the final moment, Côte d'Ivoire finally had no choice but to shake hands with Sierra Leone.
Equatorial Guinea is ranked 114th in the world, this team should be very unfamiliar to you, as a weak African team in Equatorial Guinea's most expensive player Dikmbo is only worth 1.2 million, most of the other main players of the team are not even blue-collar players, at most can only be regarded as a civilian team.
However, here is a reminder to you, although the Equatorial Guinea players are not highly valued, but the cohesion of the team is very good, in the six rounds of the World Preliminary Round before participating in the African Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea won the promotion with an impressive record of three wins, two draws and one loss, and the team is currently in the African Cup of Nations Group E is also ranked second in the group with a record of one win and one loss. As long as Equatorial Guinea can guarantee that it can not lose to Sierra Leone in this game, then Equatorial Guinea can qualify as the second in the group, because Equatorial Guinea defeated the powerful Algeria in the last round of the group stage, so even if Algeria can beat Côte d'Ivoire to score three points in this round, as long as Equatorial Guinea is unbeaten, then Algeria is still likely to be eliminated.
According to personal analysis, the strength of the two teams in this game is relatively close, but Sierra Leone's last five matches have only ended up in a draw with the opponent, while Equatorial Guinea's last five games have been two wins, two draws and one loss, compared to Equatorial Guinea seems to be better than Sierra Leone in terms of status. And Sierra Leone currently only two points in the group stage, the team can only strive to get three points in this tournament to hope to qualify, I believe that the probability of the two sides finally playing a draw in this game will not be too high, Equatorial Guinea has a good chance to seize the opponent's defensive holes when Sierra Leone chooses to take the initiative to attack and win the Sierra Leone to win the promotion. In terms of the number of goals, the two teams are not an attacking team, and the two sides have only scored three goals in four games combined, I believe that the number of goals in this game should not be too much, 1 goal and 2 goals are more reasonable, and 3 goals need a certain degree of defense.
In the second game, Côte d'Ivoire played Algeria
Côte d'Ivoire is ranked 56th in the world, and the front configuration of this team is the best of all the teams in this African Cup of Nations, and some fans and friends even joke that the front combination of Côte d'Ivoire is the African version of belgium, and Casey who plays for AC Milan and Zaha at Crystal Palace are the biggest stars in the team. Of course, the other first-line players in Côte d'Ivoire are believed to be very familiar to everyone, basically most of the players play in the top teams in European football, and this Year's Africa Cup of Nations Ivory Coast can be said to be star-studded.
However, I still have to remind you that in the first two group matches, Côte d'Ivoire has only scored three goals, and although the team is currently ranked first in the group with four points, if the team finally loses to Algeria by a larger score in this game, and Equatorial Guinea defeats Sierra Leone in another game, then Côte d'Ivoire will become the third place in the group, and it will need to be compared with the third place in other groups to determine whether it can qualify. Simply put, Ivory Coast can't afford to lose this game, at least the team needs to guarantee that they can score a point to have the guarantee of promotion.
Algeria is ranked 29th in the world, this team is also one of the big favorites to win this African Cup of Nations, but it seems that the final record of the winning hot teams in this African Cup of Nations is very average, and the other favorite team that won the african cup, Ghana, has been eliminated due to poor records, if Algeria cannot defeat Côte d'Ivoire in this game, or if the two sides are only tied in the end, then Algeria will be eliminated from the next stage of competition.
In the last game, Algeria lost to the weaker Equatorial Guinea and broke out a big cold. Judging from the course of the game, Algeria held 69% of the possession but only had three feet on goal, but Equatorial Guinea won seven shots through defensive counterattacks while the whole game was suppressed. Algerian players on the pitch seemed to have a hard time penetrating Equatorial Guinea's defence through the middle of the road, but frequently through some bottom crosses or corner kick opportunities hoping to smash the Equatorial Guinea goal with a high ball. But Algeria clearly did not have any special tactics in corner kicks and set-pieces, and the team was not in the lead in the scramble for high balls, but instead was led by Equatorial Guinea through a corner kick opportunity in the 70th minute of the second half, which is also very ironic. Personally, if Algeria continues to come up with its own skills and tactics in today's life-and-death battle, then the team will eventually be eliminated by Côte d'Ivoire.
Personal analysis, Côte d'Ivoire only need to score a point in this game to ensure peace of mind, and Algeria has no second way to go in this game except to win, so Côte d'Ivoire is likely to choose to let Algeria take the initiative to attack and then look for opportunities to fight the other side's counterattack. The two sides have never lost in the previous five meetings between Côte d'Ivoire, one win and four draws, I believe that in the current state of Côte d'Ivoire, it will not be too difficult to win a point, if Algeria chooses to attack, then Côte d'Ivoire is even likely to directly defeat Algeria with the opportunity to counterattack, after all, the personal ability of Ivorian forward players is still very good. In terms of the number of goals, the two teams have only scored one goal in the history of the two teams, and the other times they have met have ended with 4 or 5 goals, I believe that the number of goals in this game will not be too small, 3 goals and 4 goals are more reasonable, and 2 goals need a certain degree of defense.