Morocco and Guinea go head to head for the second consecutive World Cup 2022 qualifying game when they lock horns in Casablanca's Stade Mohammed V on Saturday.
Baciro Cande's men will look to exact revenge and get one over the Atlas Lions after suffering a humiliating 5-0 defeat when they squared off at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium two days ago.
Match preview
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Guinea were denied a second win on the trot last Wednesday when they were thrashed 5-0 by a rampant Morocco side at the Complexe Prince Moulay Abdellah.
After Achraf Hakimi and Imran Louza scored to give the Atlas Lions a two-goal lead heading into the interval, Ilias Chair and Ayoub El Kaabi doubled the margin before substitute Munir El Haddadi put the icing on the cake in the 82nd minute.
Prior to that, the Djurtus played out a 1-1 draw with Guinea in their Group I curtain-raiser on September 1 before claiming a 4-2 win over Sudan six days later.
While the result saw Guinea's run of four games without defeat come to an end, it was Morocco's fifth consecutive victory across all competitions since a goalless draw with Mauritania in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers back in March.
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Vahid Halilhodzic's side currently lead the way in the group with maximum points from their two outings and that has been owing to the stellar job at both ends of the pitch.
Morocco have scored the third-most goals in the qualifiers so far with seven, only behind Algeria and Tunisia, while they are yet to concede at the opposite end of the pitch.
The Atlas Lions head into this weekend's encounter in a blistering run of 20 games without defeat across all competitions, claiming 16 wins and four draws since a 3-2 loss to Gabon in a friendly clash back in 2019.
Morocco, who became the second North African side to win the Africa Cup of Nations, have now avoided losing a competitive game since 2018 when they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Portugal in the World Cup.
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Team News
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The Djurtus will take to the pitch without the services of Chateauroux midfielder Opa Sangante, who came off injured on the half-hour mark on Wednesday.
Should the 30-year-old fail to pass a fitness test, Kauno Zalgiris' man Rudinilson Silva could come into the Guinea starting side after coming off the bench in the aforementioned game.
Meanwhile, on the back of his side's dominating display in Wednesday's reverse fixture, Halilhodzic could name a similar side this weekend.
Should that be the case, we could see a defensive unit of Achraf Hakimi, Nayef Aguerd, Romain Saiss and Adam Masina shielding Sevilla's Bono in goal.
Debutant Imran Louza had a dream start to his international career when he added to the scores in the 45th minute last time out and the Watford man could retain his place in the starting lineup.
Sevilla's Munir El Haddadi also put on a solid display after coming off the bench to complete the rout and the 26-year-old could be rewarded with a place in the starting XI.
Guinea possible starting lineup:
Mendes; Silva, Mane, Nanu, Djalo; Semedo, Mendes; Jorginho, Balde, Piqueti; Mendy
Morocco possible starting lineup:
Bono; Hakimi, Saiss, Aguerd, Masina; Taarabt, Amrabat; Louza; Chair, El Kaabi, El Haddadi
We say: Guinea 0-3 Morocco
Morocco will head into this weekend's tie with sky-high confidence after easing to a comfortable 5-0 victory when they faced off two days ago.
The hosts will have to put on a better performance to prevent a repeat of that result, but considering the Atlas Lions boast a star-studded squad, we are tipping them to complete a group double over their West-African counterparts.
Top tip
Joshua Ojele
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Guinea win with a probability of 38.58%. A win for Morocco had a probability of 38.09% and a draw had a probability of 23.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Guinea win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.37%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.44%) and 2-0 (5.21%). The likeliest Morocco win was 1-2 (8.31%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.34%). The actual scoreline of 1-4 was predicted with a 1.8% likelihood.
