African Cup of Nations heads towards Quarter Finals

The African Cup of Nations is rapidly heading towards the Quarter Final stages, with Sunday’s two matches already lined up. As expected, the Ivory Coast and the injury stricken Ghana are through, while England’s World Cup 2010 opponents Algeria have managed to qualify from their group. Algeria, in all honesty, have not looked like any kind of threat throughout their group stage matches at all, and come the big tournament in South Africa in June, England should not have too much to worry about.

Algeria finish on level points with Mali, but qualified in second spot, simply because they won the head to head battle against Mali, who they defeated 1-0. Mali may be feeling a little hard done by, as they were at least entertaining in front of goal, hitting seven in their three matches. How many did Algeria score? Just the one in three games, but it proved to be a crucial one. Now we will see how they fare against the tournament favourites, Ivory Coast, and it will give a good indication of just what level they are at.

Ironically, the team which Algeria beat in the World Cup Qualifying Play-Off, Egypt, have looked one of, if not the, strongest team in the tournament, and have produced far better quality than what Algeria have. The current holders do pose a real threat to Ivory Coast’s hopes, as they look good enough to go and reclaim the title. Egypt won their group easily, by three victories from their three matches. In their somewhat abridged group after Togo‘s withdrawal, the Ivory Coast finished top ahead of Ghana. Both of those fancied teams though, did struggle to get a result against stubborn Burkina Faso, with Ghana’s 1-0 victory over them, enough to get them through. Ghana, who are missing a lot of first team choices, got hit with further bad news, when Chelsea’s Michael Essien was ruled out for the rest of the tournament through injury.

But Ghana’s reward for their triumph over Burkina Faso, is a quarter final tie against host nation Angola. Angola won their group, looking very entertaining for both good and bad reason, ahead of Algeria. Not even the fancied Cameroon have been producing to their expected level, and some of the performances by the top African teams, will have cast a little doubt over how competitive they just may be at South Africa 2010.

In Group 4, the last one to be settled, Cameroon’s defeat in their first game to the Gabon, means that there is the potential of them playing Egypt if they finish as runners up in their group. If Cameroon can get ahead of the Gabon in the final round of group matches, then they will have the slightly easier task against Nigeria. Cameroon had to scrape out a 3-2 win over Zambia in their second match, so just a point in their final match against Tunisia, who have looked surprisingly dull, will get them through to the Quarter Finals.

January 21 Group Matches
Cameroon to win: 10/11 at BetFred
Draw: 13/5 at Stan James
Tunisia to win: 15/4 at Stan James

Gabon to win: 8/5 at Expekt
Draw: 9/4 at Boylesports
Zambia to win: 2/1 at Stan James

January 24th Quarter Finals
Angola to win: 17/10 at ExtraBet
Draw: 9/4 at Coral
Ghana to win: 13/8 at Blue Square

Ivory Coast to win: 11/17 at Bwin
Draw: 11/4 at 888Sport
Algeria to win: 9/2 at SportingBet

African Cup of Nations Outright Winner
Ivory Coast – 2/1 at ExtraBet
Egypt – 4/1 at Extrabet
Cameroon – 6/1 at Ladbrokes
Nigera – 8/1 at Totesport
Ghana – 9/1 at Ladbrokes