Ivory Coast vs Egypt

On Wednesday night, Ivory Coast and Egypt clash in arguably the biggest of the last-16 games in the African Cup of Nations.

Ivory Coast

The Elephants qualified for the last-16 of the competition unbeaten, having claimed two wins and a draw. A 3-1 win over reigning champions Algeria in the final group game was a particularly impressive result.

Patrice Beaumelle’s team have been hard to defeat of late, as they have suffered just one defeat in 15 international outings.

Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe has been a key figure for the Ivory Coast at the AFCON, scoring in the last two group games. The 26-year-old could once again be a vital player for the Elephants.

Egypt

The Pharoah’s recovered from an opening game 1-0 defeat by Nigeria by recording back-to-back victories over Guinea-Bissau and Sudan by the same scoreline.

Carlos Queiroz’s team needed the two victories, as they had failed to win their previous five games in all competitions in 90 minutes.

Their recent international games have been low-scoring, with under 2.5 goals scored in six of their last seven matches.

Egypt has a good recent record at the African Cup of Nations, having won five of their last seven games in the competition.

Just like the recent international games, their recent matches at the AFCON have been low-scoring, with under 2.5 goals scored in their last seven games in the competition. The fact that Egypt has kept five clean sheets in that run has been a major contributing factor in the low-scoring games.

Ivory Coast vs Egypt Team News

Ivory Coast are expected to be without Toulouse midfielder Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro through illness.

Egypt are likely to be without Akram Tawfik through injury. However, left-back Ahmed Fatouh could feature after recovering from an injury sustained in the opening game of the competition.