Time To Say Goodbye To The Hosts

Tunisia face tournament hosts Equatorial Guinea in the AFCON quarter-finals on Saturday…

Form
Two draws and a win were enough to see Tunisia progress to the knockout stages of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations as winners of Group B ahead of DR Congo, Cape Verde and Zambia. The campaign began with a 1-1 draw against Cape Verde, before a 2-1 Victory over Zambia meant that a draw in their final game against DR Congo would be enough for both teams to go through.

Striker Ahmed Akaichi has scored two of Tunisia four goals in the tournament so far including the important equaliser to set up the win against Zambia, and the first against DR Congo to put his team on course for the point that they needed to progress.

Tournament hosts Equatorial Guinea are also unbeaten in the tournament so far and reach the latter stages having picked up five points from three group games.

Their progression, however, came about in a slightly different manner as they beat Gabon in a must-win game last Sunday having drawn their opening two fixtures of the tournament.

Estoril forward Javier Angel Balboa scored the opener from the penalty spot in the 2-0 victory, while youngster Iban settled the nerves in the 86th minute to seal the three points and a quarterfinal berth.

Team News
Tunisia have no fresh injury concerns going into the game and can be expected to name a near-to-full-strength starting XI. For the hosts, Diosado Mbele returns from suspension and could take his place in the team at the expense of Daniel Evuy.

The game has been moved from Ebybiyin to Bata following concerns raised about the pitch, although the cynics will note that Equatorial Guinea have never lost in Bata and that may be a part of the reason for the switch.

Head-to-Head
One Tunisian victory (3-1) and a 1-1 draw make up the recent head-to-head statistics between the two nations after they met in qualification for the 2014 World Cup. Tunisia would top the group but lose in a play-off to Cameroon, while Equatorial Guinea finished bottom of the group.

Recommended Bets

It’s something of a surprise that the hosts are still in the competition at this point, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be progressing any further as they come up against a tough and physical Tunisian side.

11/10 about Tunisia in the Match Odds market looks to be a good bet here.

That said, it may not be pretty, and the 5/2 about Tunisia winning with fewer than 2.5 goals in the match also looks a good bet and the 29/20 on Tunisia and fewer than 3.5 goals is probably better value than the straight up 11/10 in the Match Odds market.