Ivory Coast out to overcome rampant Algeria

by Staff Reporter

Wednesday Jul 10, 2019. 16:00

Tournament favourites Algeria will do battle with Ivory Coast for a place in the the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals at Suez Stadium in Suez on Thursday evening.

Kick-off is at 18h00 CAT.

The two nations will lock horns in the quarter-final stage for the second time in four years, having come to blows in the last eight at the 2015 Afcon tournament hosted in Equatorial Guinea.

Goals from Wilfried Bony [two] and Gervinho spearheaded the Elephants to a 3-1 victory over the North African's as they duly went on to lifting the title, their second Afcon crown, with victory over Ghana in the final.

Algeria will be hoping to clinch their second continental title and first since 1990 this month and if the Desert Foxes continue to play like they have during the course of the tournament, it would be foolish to bet agains them.

Djamel Belmadi's troops are yet to concede a goal in Egypt, having topped a competitive group with wins over pre-tournament favourites Senegal, Kenya and Tanzania.

The Desert Foxes carried that momentum into the knockout stages, sweeping aside Guinea 3-0 in the Round of 16.

Ivory Coast finished second behind Morocco in their group, and were unconvincing in their 1-0 win over Mali, but Ibrahim Kamara will be hopeful that his troops have left their best performances for the latter part of the tournament.

The winner will face either Nigeria or South Africa for a place in the tournament final, which will take place at Cairo International Stadium on 19 July.