Guinea take on the visitors Egypt in the round 5 match of qualification for Africa Cup of Nations. The match will be played on Wednesday, June 14th at Stade de Marrakech (Marrakech).
Guinea have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup. Several times, the team has been disqualified, and in other cases, they simply couldn't match the competition, which is particularly high on the African continent. Moreover, their only regional success was a second-place finish in 1976. The current squad's achievement is limited to reaching the playoffs in the last two Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournaments but being eliminated in the first knockout round. However, Guinea does have quite a few talented players. Among them is Kamanu from Moscow's "Lokomotiv," who can be considered the main goal scorer. But, of course, the main star is captain Naby Keita, despite his struggles at Liverpool. There are other notable names as well, although many, like Moriba Ilaix, a product of Barcelona's academy, have yet to fully blossom. Nevertheless, at least qualifying for the tournament is a reasonable goal for them. They lost to Egypt at the start of the qualifying campaign but then secured three victories against underdogs Ethiopia and Malawi.
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Egypt rightfully hold the title of one of Africa's strongest national teams. That was the case last year as well, although it may not be remembered with warmth. They reached the final of the AFCON but faced defeat against Senegal, where Salah encountered his club teammate, Sadio Mane. It was a bitter loss through a penalty shootout, costing them the continental trophy. A few months later, the teams met again in the World Cup qualifiers, and the negative narrative almost repeated itself. They exchanged 1-0 victories, but Egypt lost in the penalty shootout, denying them the ticket to Qatar. Furthermore, at the beginning of the current qualifying campaign, Egypt, after narrowly defeating Guinea 1-0, surprisingly suffered a 0-2 loss against Ethiopia. In mid-July, Rui Vitoria took over as the head coach, and so far, the Portuguese manager has a perfect record, winning all five matches. However, those were a couple of qualifying matches against Malawi in March and friendly matches in autumn. Nonetheless, victories were not only against Niger and Liberia but also against Belgium.
Guinea has even managed to win, but that was during the successful 1976 AFCON. In most of the other meetings, Egypt emerged victorious, including their 1-0 win last year. In essence, both opponents have already qualified for the final stage of the tournament, so there isn't a clear motivation factor here. Therefore, Egypt's higher class should make a difference. We recommend betting on Egypt to win this match.
Prediction for the match: Egypt to win.
