Football Picks – Africa Cup of Nations – Quarterfinals

Zambia – Sudan
In 2010 in Angola, during the last Africa Cup of Nations, 3 of the 4 quarterfinals went into extra time, which just goes to show, how much each team really wants success at this stage.

So why not go hunting for at draw already in the first quarterfinal this time? Zambia is deservedly the favourite here, while is rather surprising to see Sudan this far, but being here they’ll of course give their all.

Both nations have played out 2 draws in their last 4 matches.

Ivory Coast – Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea have stuck to a very tight game plan with their matches ending in 1-0, 0-1 and 2-1. And in the latter, the score was 1-0, when the match went into extra time!

Should this game be any different? I doubt it very much, when you look at the results of the Ivory Coast. Their last 6 matches have had 2 goals to offer at the most.

Gabon – Mali
The enthusiams must be big in Gabon with the co-host going through the group stage without dropping a single point, just like only Ivory Coast has managed.

Mali went through with 2 wins and a defeat so why go for a draw here? Simply because of that. It’s rare for anyone to go through to the semifinals in any big tournament without dropping a single point, even Spain knows that.

At some point most teams reach a stalemate, and both Gabon and Mali played out 2 draws in their last 2 matches before this tournament, so they are not unfamiliar with the result and in a knock out-stage a price like this is simply good value.

Ghana – Tunisia
Ghana went through the group stage with following results: 1-0, 2-0 and 1-1. They keep things pretty tight, and even though 2 of Tunisia’s 3 group matches had 3 goals to offer, I’m thinking this match will be played on Ghana’s term.

I therefore vote for under 2.5 goals, which have come through in 8 af Ghana’s last 9 matches and in 5 of Tunisia’s last 8.

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