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A spot in the AFCON 2021 quarter-finals will be up for stake on Wednesday evening when the record Champions Egypt takes on Ivory Coast at the Japoma Stadium in Douala.
Egypt qualified to the round of 16 of the tournament after finishing second in their group D with just six points ,three points behind group leaders Nigeria.
While Ivory Coast topped their group with seven points after they had a smooth run in the groupstages.
Despite their unconvincing performance in the group stages, scoring only twice, The Pharoahs would like to prove the critics wrong that they were worthy of a spot at this stage.
Egypt head into the round of 16 as the most decorated side on the continent with a record seven Africa Cup of Nations titles, with their last coming in 2010, when they picked up a 1-0 victory over Ghana in the final.
For the Elephants of Ivory Coast, they will be with out their experienced right back and Captain Serge Aurier.
His AFCON involvement seems to be over after being forced to leave the pitch during the 3-1 victory against Algeria with a suspected hamstring tear.
“I think it might be over because I felt something, it may be a tear .I think we came across a team that has more juice than us. They had more of recovery after the the first round and I think we quite simply ran out of freshness.” Aurier said at the end of the game.
One the other side, the Egyptians welcome back midfielder Amro ELSoulia who won the best assist of the 2021 Africa Cup Of Nations group stages.
The winner between Egypt and Ivory Coast will play Morocco on Sunday.
Ivory Coast possible starting lineup:
Sangare; Baily, Kossounou, Deli, Konan; Kessie, Seri, Sangare; Zaha, Haller, Pepe
Egypt possible starting lineup:
El-Shennawy; Kamal, Hegazi, Hamdi, Ashraf; Fathi, El-Sulya, Elneny; Mohamed, Marmoush, Salah
What you need to know | Courtesy Goal.com
- Ivory Coast and Egypt have met on 10 previous occasions at the Afcon finals, while this meeting will see it become the most played fixture in the history of the competition (11).
- Egypt have progressed on each of the previous four occasions when facing the Elephants in the knockout stage – two of those have come via penalty shootouts, with the second of those coming in 2006 final (4-2 on penalties).
- Ivory Coast are unbeaten in their three games at this year’s edition (W2 D1), while the last time they avoided defeat in their opening four games in a single edition of the tournament was in 2015 when they went on to win it, beating Ghana on penalties in the final.
- Egypt have been eliminated in their last two knockout stage games at Afcon (1-2 v Cameroon in the 2017 final and 0-1 v South Africa in the 2019 Round of 16). Prior to this, they had progressed from 11 consecutive games in the knockout stages, between 2006 and 2017.
- This is Egypt’s 25th appearance at Afcon, a record in the history of the tournament and they have won it seven times, more than any other side. However, they have won none of their last five tournaments after winning each of the previous three (2006, 2008, 2010).
- Meanwhile, this is Ivory Coast’s 24th participation at Afcon, a tally only bettered by Egypt (25). They’ve won the tournament twice (1992 and 2015) and progressed to the knockout stage in seven of their last eight appearances.
