South Africa play their opening match of AFCON 23 when they take on Mali at the Amadou Coulibaly Stadium on Tuesday and we take a look at the game from a betting angle.
This is a Group E fixture and at the time of writing, Tunisia are the 9/10 favourites to win the group ahead of Mali at 16/10. South Africa are on offer at 11/20 and Namibia the rank outsiders at 22/1.
You can click here on Group betting as well as all of the other outright AFCON markets
MALI
Mali came through the AFCON qualifications strongly, winning 5 of their last 6 matches. They warmed up for the Tournament with a comfortable 6-2 victory over fellow AFCON entrants, Guinea-Bissau last week and in the last three months, they have also had World Cup qualification action where they drew at home to Central Africa and beat Chad, also at home.
Goals have flowed in recent Mali matches and both teams have found the back of the net in their last 4 International games.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa’s last action in AFCON qualifying was in June last year when they beat Morocco 2-1 at home. They also beat Liberia 2-1 on the road to book their spot in the Tournament with a powerful late run.
The good news for South Africa is that they have a full squad to pick from and they are keeping their cards close to their chest not showing much in their goalless draw warm-up against Lesotho.
They have also been involved in World Cup qualification in recent months beating Benin 2-1 at home, but losing 2-0 on the road to Rwanda.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
These sides last met in a friendly back in 2019 with South Africa winning 2-1 and they last met in AFCON in 2014 where the game finished 1-1
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BETTING – Click here to bet
Mali 11/10
Draw 9/4
South Africa 28/10
VERDICT
This is a very important match as far as Group qualification goes and while I expect things to be tight early there has been a strong pattern of goals in Mali matches of late and I think there is some value in backing 16/10 that we get 3 goals or more in the match.
Suggested Bet: Over 2.5 goals at 16/10
There are plenty of betting markets for punters to get stuck into including the Correct Score where Mali 1, South Africa 2 is currently trading at 12/1.
You can also get betting on the First Goal Scorer, Anytime Goal Scorer and Last Goal Scorer and if you prefer not to get involved up front then there is in-running betting action to look forward to.
Click here for betting on all of the AFCON matches
Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
