Ivory Coast look to claim last 16 spot

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Sunday Jun 30, 2019. 09:00

Ivory Coast will look to claim a place in the last 16 of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations when they take on Namibia in their final Group D match on Monday 1 July.

The clash is set for the 30 June Stadium in Cairo, with kick-off at 18:00 CAT.

Namibia suffered a second successive 1-0 loss at the AFCON when they went down at the hands of regional rivals South Africa on Friday night, with Bafana Bafana’s Bongani Zungu scoring the only goal of the game.

The defeat came on the back of a loss to Morocco by the same score line earlier in the week. Coach Ricardo Mannetti and his Brave Warriors may be sitting at the bottom of the group standings, but they have certainly not disgraced themselves with two gritty but unlucky showings.

And they still have a slight chance of advancing as one of the best third-placed teams, though they’ll need to defeat Ivory Coast and hope that results elsewhere in the tournament allow them a chance of a spot in the last 16.

As for Ivory Coast, they slumped to a 1-0 loss at the hands of Morocco in their second Group D match and come into this clash against Namibia needing a win to guarantee progression (while a draw may also be enough to claim either second place, or likely be one of the best third-place teams).

In head-to-head stats, Namibia and Ivory Coast have met in four previous matches, with the Elephants claiming two wins and the Brave Warriors one. The teams’ most recent meeting was a group stage match in the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) which the Southern Africans won 1-0.