Ivory Coast – Togo

The African Cup of Nations produced a lot of upsets in the first two days and Ivory Coast will seek to be the first big favorite to respect its status. Ivory Coast meets Togo, with the two teams being drawn in Group C alongside DR Congo and Morocco.

Defending champions Ivory Coast called up a squad filled with talent for this African Cup of Nations, including the likes of Bony (Man City), Aurier (PSG), Bailly (Man United), Kalou (Hertha) or Gradel (Bournemouth), among many others. The Elephants had a horrific qualifying campaign finishing with 1 win and 3 draws in a group with Sierra Leone and Sudan. However, they clearly took that 3-team group lightly, did not call up their best players and still they were never in real danger to miss out on qualification.

Togo was the last team to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, as they managed to catch the last place via goal difference in the ‘best second placed teams’ section. They finished behind Tunisia in the qualifying group and just 1 point above Liberia. The main reason for which Togo qualified was that they were in the same group with the worst team in Africa, Djibouti, and they were able to build their goal difference this way. A fair case can be made that Togo is very lucky to be here.

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Possible lineups:

Ivory Coast: Mande – Aurier, Kone, Bailly, Traore – N’Guessan, Die – Gradel, Sio, Kalou – Bony

Togo: Agassa – Mamah, Djene, Akapko, Ouro-Akoriko – Atakora, Romao, Gakpe, Segbefia, Ayite – Adebayor

It wasn`t such a big surprise that the favorites failed to win in the first two days (this sounds dumb, but you know what I mean). The African Cup of Nations is always tricky and there are a lot of upsets involved, but I do believe Ivory Coast will manage to win this game.

Togo will be led by free agent Adebayor (who has not scored in 11 months) and they have a few other European – based players who play relatively often for their clubs like Akapko (Trabzonspor), Ayite (Fulham), Atakora (Helsinborgs). Gakpé (Genoa / Atalanta), Segbefia (Gotzepe) or Dossevi (Standard Liege) – but even these ones are generally substitutes or fringe players for their teams. Besides these guys and a couple more, the rest of the players mostly ply their trade at poor clubs or in Africa and the squad is unbalanced in this regard. Togo’s top asset is without a doubt coach Claude LeRoy.

Given their mediocre squad and their unimpressive record in qualifiers, I don`t believe Togo will do much damage in this competition and they should definitely lose to Ivory Coast. With their leaders being free agents or not playing much for their clubs, Togo does not seem like a team that is likely to cause upsets.

Ivory Coast is the best team in the competition quality wise and they need to win this game to get a head start in a difficult group, otherwise they might have serious problems to qualify. They have been far from impressive revently, but that was expected with the change of generations and now they have their best players available, which rarely happened in the last couple of years.

I don`t necessarily fully trust the Elephants, but I do have some trust in them (their squad demands it) and more importantly I do not trust Togo at all to be a dangerous side. My tip here is Ivory Coast to win, odds aren`t high on this bet, but they are decent and fair. The handicap is too risky in my opinion. Prediction: Ivory Coast – Togo 2-0.

Pick: Ivory Coast
Odds: 1.53 @ Ohmbet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 4.24
Event date: 16 January