Ivory Coast will travel to take on Mozambique on Friday, in the first round of fixtures in Group D of the African World Cup Qualifiers.
The hosts reached this stage with a first-round aggregate victory over Mauritius, while their visitors enter at this point and will be keen to stamp their authority on the group with an opening win.
Match preview
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Mozambique had to fight for their spot in the qualifying group and took on Mauritius in the first round in 2019, with a 1-0 away victory and a 2-0 home win seeing them cruise through.
Since that victory, Horacio Goncalves's men have struggled for form, firstly dropping out of the African Cup of Nations Qualifiers with just four points from six games, before they were dumped out of the COSAFA Cup in the summer.
While they did qualify for the final four in second place in Group B, Os Mambas were comfortably defeated by South Africa, as Njabulo Ngcobo, Yusuf Maart and Sepana Letsoalo got on the scoresheet in a 3-0 win for the host nation.
Martinho then put them ahead in the third-place playoff against Eswatini, and they looked set to see out a 1-0 victory, only for their opponents to draw level in the dying minutes through Khethokuhle Mkhontfo and prevail in the penalty shootout.
Having now won just two of their last 11 games in all competitions, Mozambique will be keen to reverse their fortunes and get off to a good start in the World Cup Qualifying campaign, but they face a particularly tough test against a strong Ivory Coast side.
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The visitors come into the game on the back of a strong run of form, and they will be keen to begin the qualifying campaign with a win.
After losing the second game in their African Cup of Nations Qualification group, Les Elephants bounced back with a 2-1 victory over Madagascar late last year, before they played out a 1-1 draw with the same opponent.
Patrice Beaumelle's men then returned to qualifying action after the turn of the year with a 3-0 thrashing of Niger and a 3-1 win over Ethiopia, before beating Burkina Faso 2-1 and playing out a goalless draw with Ghana in friendlies in June.
Having cruised through to the African Cup of Nations in first place in their group, Les Elephants will look to repeat that feat for next year's World Cup, and start the qualifying campaign with a victory on their travels.
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Team News
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The majority of Mozambique's squad play their domestic football on home soil, other than five players who ply their trade in Portugal, with Amora's Bruno Langa and Maritimo's Francisco Simbine playing important roles in defence.
Further forward, midfielders Geny Catamo, Abel Joshua and Amancio Canhemba feature for Sporting Lisbon, Vitoria de Guimaraes and Maritimo respectively, and Catamo and Joshua offer plenty of threat going forward.
Ivory Coast boast a squad with plenty of quality, even without Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha and Manchester United winger Amad Diallo.
Winger Maxwell Cornet recently moved from Lyon to Premier League side Burnley, while Max Gradel has the most experience in the side and could occupy the other flank.
Beaumelle has the option to deploy the centre-back pairing of Manchester United's Eric Bailly and Wolverhampton Wanderers' Willy Boly, while Serge Aurier adds further experience in a back four.
At the other end of the pitch, Sebastien Haller could lead the line, having registered 15 goals and eight assists in 27 appearances for Ajax since arriving from West Ham United in January.
Mozambique possible starting lineup:
Guambe; Nhaca, Macaime, Simbine, Langa; Pelembe, Canhemba, Nangy; Catamo, Novela, Ernesto
Ivory Coast possible starting lineup:
Gbohouo; Aurier, Bailly, Boly, Konan; Gradel, Die, Seri, Cornet; Haller, Kouame
We say: Mozambique 0-3 Ivory Coast
Les Elephants boast the far stronger of the two squads and should kick their campaign off with a convincing victory in Mozambique.
The hosts may struggle at the back, and Ivory Coast have more than enough attacking talent to put them to the sword, while comfortably dealing with the opposition threat at the other end of the pitch.
Top tip
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 Mozambique win with a probability of 35.3%. A win for Ivory Coast had a probability of 33.51% and a draw had a probability of 31.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Mozambique win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.02%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (7%) and 2-1 (6.75%). The likeliest Ivory Coast win was 0-1 (13.54%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 0-0 (14.04%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 14% likelihood.
