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Ivory Coast national football team
Africa Cup of Nations | Group Stage
Jan 16, 2022 at 4pm UK
 
Sierra Leone national football team

Ivory Coast
2 - 2
Sierra Leone

Haller (25'), Pepe (65')
FT(HT: 1-0)
Kamara (55'), Kamara (90+3')
Kakay (52'), Kamara (90+5')

Preview: Ivory Coast vs. Sierra Leone - prediction, team news, lineups

Sports Mole previews Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations clash between Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Ivory Coast have an opportunity to progress into the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations when they square up to the challenge of Sierra Leone at the Japoma Stadium on Sunday.

Sierra Leone, on the other hand, secured an impressive point in last time out and now seek to build upon that in their second outing.


Match preview

Ivory Coast players pose for a team group photo before the match on January 12, 2022© Reuters

Ivory Coast managed to scrape past the Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea in a narrow 1-0 victory on Wednesday to get things started on the front foot.

The contest was decided in the fifth minute as Max Gradel scored a peach of a goal to hand Patrice Beaumelle's men all three points.

Consequently, the Elephants sit top of the pile in Group E and are two points clear of both Algeria and Sierra Leone.

Next up for the west Africans is a sophomore clash versus an opposing outfit yet to come out on top in any of the five previous meetings between the teams.

However, Ivory Coast have had to settle for a draw in each of the most recent two encounters, which came in the qualifiers for the 2017 AFCON.

Sierra Leone defied all expectations in their opening fixture by holding defending champions Algeria to a goalless draw on Tuesday.

Despite being under the cosh for major parts of the contest, John Keister's men held firm to record a memorable result in Douala.

The Leone stars have given their chances of progressing into the knockout stages a huge boost, but there is still work to be done in the remaining two matches.

Sierra Leone wrap up their group-stage campaign with a meeting versus Equatorial Guinea, while Ivory Coast take on Algeria.

Ivory Coast Africa Cup of Nations form:
  • W

Ivory Coast form (all competitions):
  • W
  • W
  • W
  • W
  • L
  • W

Sierra Leone Africa Cup of Nations form:
  • D

Sierra Leone form (all competitions):
  • L
  • W
  • D
  • L
  • L
  • D



Team News

Ivory Coast's Max-Alain Gradel celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates on January 12, 2022© Reuters

Thirty-four-year-old Max Gradel has now found the back of the net in two of his last three outings for Ivory Coast and is one to keep an eye on.

Maxwel Cornet got the nod over Wilfried Zaha to feature on the left-hand side of the attack last time out, but the Crystal Palace man could return to the XI for this one.

Steven Caulker was excellent in his Sierra Leone debut, and his nation will need the defender to be on song for this one.

Mohamed Kamara overcame a late first-half injury scare in the Algeria draw and should be fit enough to participate on Sunday.

Ivory Coast possible starting lineup:
Sangare; Konan, Bailly, Maiga, Deli; Kessie, Seri, Sangare; Zaha, Haller, Gradel

Sierra Leone possible starting lineup:
M. Kamara; Wright, Caulker, Bangura, Kakay; J. Kamara, Quee, S. Kamara; Buya Turay, Bundu, A. Kamara


SM words green background

We say: Ivory Coast 2-0 Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone punched significantly above their weight and will take huge belief from that performance heading into this weekend's game. However, we are tipping Ivory Coast to come away with all three points and confirm their place in the round of 16.



Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:data



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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 Ivory Coast win with a probability of 55.39%. A draw had a probability of 24.8% and a win for Sierra Leone had a probability of 19.76%.

The most likely scoreline for a Ivory Coast win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.7%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (11.06%) and 2-1 (9.43%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.67%), while for a Sierra Leone win it was 0-1 (7.23%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 4% likelihood.


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Game History

How you voted: Ivory Coast vs Sierra Leone

Ivory Coast
83.3%
Draw
5.0%
Sierra Leone
11.7%
60
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Group A

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Equatorial Guinea flag Eq Guinea32107
Q Nigeria Nigeria32107
Q Cote D'Ivoire flag Ivory Coast31023
4 Guinea-Bissau flag Guinea-Bissau30030

Group B

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Cape Verde flag Cape Verde32107
Q Egypt Egypt30303
3 Ghana flag Ghana30212
4 Mozambique flag Mozambique30212

Group C

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Senegal flag Senegal33009
Q Guinea flag Guinea31114
Q Cameroon flag Cameroon31114
4 Gambia flag Gambia30030

Group D

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Angola Angola32107
Q Burkina Faso flag Burkina Faso31114
Q Mauritania flag Mauritania31023
4 Algeria Algeria30212

Group E

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Mali flag Mali31205
Q South Africa South Africa31114
Q Namibia Namibia31114
4 Tunisia Tunisia30212

Group F

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Morocco Morocco32107
Q DR Congo flag Congo DR30303
3 Tanzania flag Tanzania30212
4 Zambia flag Zambia30212


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