12th January, 2022
Equatorial Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire face off in Douala Cameroon at 8pm today in MatchDay 1 of Group E of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations.
Following are the Match Facts from Opta, as published by CAF Online:
The only previous encounter between Equatorial Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire in the Africa Cup of Nations was in the quarterfinals of the 2012 tournament – Côte d’Ivoire won 3-0.
This is Equatorial Guinea’s third Africa Cup of Nations, but it’s the first time they have qualified as non-hosts. They have so far always reached the knockout stages (quarterfinalists in 2012, 4th place in 2015).
This is Côte d’Ivoire’s 24th participation in the Africa Cup of Nations, a tally only bettered by Egypt (25). They’ve won the tournament twice (1992 and 2015) and progressed to the knockout stages in seven of their last eight appearances.
Côte d’Ivoire have lost only two of their last 20 group games at the Africa Cup of Nations (W12 D6), both against Morocco in 2017 and 2019. Their last defeat in an opening match was in 1996 against Ghana (0-2).
Côte d’Ivoire midfielder Franck Kessié was the joint-top assist provider in the last Africa Cup of Nations – all three of his assists came in one game against Namibia. He was also The Elephants’ top scorer in qualifying for this year’s tournament (3 goals).
Match Card
Date: 12 January 2022
Time: 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT)
Stadium: Japoma Stadium, Douala
Group: E
Match: Equatorial Guinea v Cote d’Ivoire