Seeking to rise to the summit of Group A of the African World Cup 2022 Qualifiers, Burkina Faso take a trip to the Stade de Marrakech to face Djibouti on Friday.
Julien Mette's men, who have lost their opening two games, find themselves rooted to the bottom of the group and will be looking to end their dry spell.
Match preview
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Djibouti kicked off their quest for a first-ever World Cup appearance back in 2019, when they claimed a 2-1 aggregate victory over Eswatini to progress to the group stages of the second qualifying round.
However, they received a baptism of fire in their Group A curtain raiser as they suffered a humiliating 8-0 defeat versus current African champions Algeria on September 2.
Djibouti failed to bounce back from that result in their subsequent outing as they fell to a 4-2 defeat against Niger at the Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah four days later.
Victorien Adebayor found the net before Amadou Wonkoye and Amadou Sabo scored in a four-minute spell to cancel out Anas Farah Ali's first-half opener and put Niger three goals up, before Warsama Hassan halved the deficit in the 91st minute.
Riverains de la Mer Rouge have now failed to taste victory in any of their most recent five games in all competitions, picking up two draws and losing three since September 2019.
While they will be looking to end this poor run of results and get their qualification campaign up and running, they face the stern task of going up against a superior Burkina Faso side who appear to have already hit their stride.
Burkina Faso began their pursuit for a place in Qatar on a winning note as they comfortably edged out Niger 2-0 back in September.
In a one-sided affair at the Stade de Marrakech, Shakhtar Donetsk youngster Lassina Traore converted his 76th-minute spot kick to break the deadlock, before Mohamed Konate doubled the lead three minutes later.
Les Etalons went on to salvage an impressive draw against Algeria a little under one week later, when Sofiane Feghouli's opener was cancelled out by Abdoul Tapsoba in the 64th minute.
Kamou Malo's men, who are currently tied on four points with the 2019 AFCON winners, head into Friday's game unbeaten in each of their most recent six competitive outings, dating back to January's 1-0 loss to Mali.
Burkina Faso are ranked 68th in the world and will fancy their chances of maintaining their fine start to the qualifiers against a struggling Djibouti side who are 117 places below them in the FIFA World Rankings.
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Team News
Djibouti have named a relatively inexperienced side for their upcoming games, including defender Daoud Wais and Slima Wanderers midfielder Warsama Hassan.
Mahdi Houssein Mahabeh currently leads the nation's all time scoring chart with six goals in 14 caps and we expect the 25-year-old to handle business at the attacking end of the pitch.
Twenty-two-year-old Youssouf Batio Mohamed will play no part in this encounter as he serves the second of a three-match suspension after receiving a red card against Algeria in the group opener.
Burkina Faso, on the other hand, head into the game with a 27-man squad with the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk's Lassina Traore, Manchester City loanee Isa Kabore and Standard Liege's Abdoul Tapsoba headlining the team.
On the back of his side's solid defensive display against Algeria, Malo should deploy a similar defensive unit on Friday, meaning we could see Oula Traore, Issoufou Dayo, Steeve Yago and Issa Kabore shielding goalkeeper Herve Koffi.
Djibouti possible starting lineup:
Mbonihankuye; Wais, Mohamed, Siad, Robleh; Hamza, Elabeh, Hassan, Abdulaziz; Mahabeh, Farada
Burkina Faso possible starting lineup:
Koffi; Kabore, Yago, Dayo, Traore; Guira, Dabo, Sangare; Tapsoba, Traore, Bande
We say: Djibouti 0-3 Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso, who have enjoyed a solid start to the second qualifying round, will be keen to avoid dropping points over the next two games as a second meeting with group favourites Algeria still awaits.
Djibouti have struggled to get going so far and we predict Les Etalons will claim all three points as they boast a significantly superior crop of players.
Top tip
Joshua Ojele
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Burkina Faso win with a probability of 38.74%. A win for Djibouti had a probability of 36.27% and a draw had a probability of 25%.
The most likely scoreline for a Burkina Faso win was 1-2 with a probability of 8.53%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.37%) and 0-2 (6.09%). The likeliest Djibouti win was 2-1 (8.21%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.72%). The actual scoreline of 0-4 was predicted with a 1.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Burkina Faso would win this match.
