IVORY COAST take on Egypt today in a heavyweight AFCON contest which will see one of the pre-tournament favourites crash out.
Battling for a place in the quarter-finals, both sides are packed with star-studded names with Mo Salah hoping to fire the Egyptians into the next round.
- Kick-off time: 4pm GMT
- TV channel: Sky Sports Main Event/BBC Red Button
- Ivory Coast XI: Sangare, Aurier, Bailly, Deli, Konan, Sangare, Seri, Kessi, Gradel, Pepe, Haller.
- Egypt XI: El Shenawy, El Fotouh, Abdelmonem, Hegazy, El Solia, Fathi, Marmoush, Kamal, Elneny, Mostafa Mohamed, Salah.
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Ivory Coast 0 Egypt 0
4. The ball comes to Gradel out wide.
Two defenders square up to him.
He skips passed Hegazy and fires in a shot but the defender heads it away.
Already Gradel is looking lively down the left.
Ivory Coast 0 Egypt 0
2. The ball drops to Kessie outside the box.
He takes it passed his marker and gets a shot away.
The ball misses the post by a few feet, the keeper seemed to have it covered.
Ivory Coast 0 Egypt 0
1. The roar from the fans as soon as the ball heads towards Mo Salah just shows how they feel about their ‘Egyptian King’.
Ivory Coast will look to take this game to Egypt.
They need to press Egypt from the off.
Ivory Coast 0 Egypt 0
1. Ivory Coast get the game underway.
Let’s hope for a classic!
Tactical battle
As much as this is a game of two of the giants of African football, it is also a battle of two minds.
Patrice Beaumelle vs Carlos Queiroz.
How they deal with the opposition’s attacking threat is key.
Beaumelle also has a strong bench, utilising these players at the right time could change the game.
Beware the herd
Ivory Coast have won AFCON twice, in 1992 and 2015.
These two teams last met in a 2013 friendly which the Ivorians won 4-2.
Les Elephants have two of the tournament’s form players in Nicolas Pepe and Franck Kessie.
They also have in-form Ajax striker Sebastien Haller.
Return of the king
Egypt, despite having won seven AFCON titles, The Pharaohs have been eliminated in their last two knockout stage games.
- 1-2 Cameroon (Final, 2017)
- 0-1 South Africa (Round of 16, 2019)
They will be looking to bounce back from these disappointing tournaments.
Egypt subs:
Trezeguet, Abdelghany, Sherif, Sobhi Ahmed, Ashraf, Abou Gabal, Lasheen, El Said, Alaa Eldin, Sayeed, Daader, Hamdy.
Egypt team:
El-Shenawy, Soleya, Hegazy, Abdelmonem Elsayed Mohammed Ahmed, Aboul-Fetouh, Abdel Wahed, Marmoush, Fathi, Elneny, Salah, Mohamed.
Ivory Coast subs:
Tape, Kanon, Koussounou, Zaha, Kouassi, Cornet, Maiga, Boga, Die, Kouame, Cisse, Boli.
Ivory Coast team:
B Sangare, Aurier, Bailly, Deli, Ghislain Konan, I Sangare, Seri, Kessie, Gradel, Haller, Pepe.
Tally of the kings
The Pharaohs lost their opening group game against Nigeria 1-0.
A Mohammed Salah goal was enough for a 1-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau.
In their final group game they beat Sudan 1-0.
The goalscorer was Abdelmonem Elsayed Mohamed Ahmed.
Parents up and down Egypt fear hearing children ask for his name on tops.
Les Elephants unbeaten
In their opening group game they beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 with a Max Gradel goal.
Goals from Haller and Pepe weren’t enough to prevent a 2-2 draw with Sierra Leone, their opponents equalising in the 93rd minute.
Goals from Kessie, Sangare and Pepe contributed in a 3-1 victory over Algeria in their final game, knocking the holders out of the tournament.
Deja vu
Today’s game will make this the most played fixture in the history of the competition (11 times).
Egypt won their fifth AFCON in 2006, beating Ivory Coast 4-2 on penalties in the final.
They have met four times in the knockout stages with Egypt winning each time.
Welcome back AFCON fans
So far the round of 16 has given us more drama than any soap could.
Today we are treated to a game good enough to be a final itself.
Ivory Coast vs Egypt
These two teams have 9 AFCON titles between them.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
