Teams
Morocco: Bounou; Dirar, Benatia, Saïss, Hakimi; Belhanda, El Ahmadi; Amrabat, Ziyech, Belhanda; En-Nesyri
Subs: Mazraoui, Bennasser, Fajr, Da Costa, Boufal, Idrissi, Boujab, EL Kajoui, Abdelhamid, Bourabia
Ivory Coast: Gbohouo; Aurier, Traoré, Kanon, Wonlo; Serey Die; Pépé, Seri, Gradel; Kodjia
Subs: Ira, Doumbia, Zaha, Assalé Cornet, Bony, I Sangaré, Bagayoko, B Sangaré
Referee: A Néant (Cameroon)
Updated
Preamble
Hello and welcome to another heavyweight duel in an Africa Cup of Nations that looks wide open. Yesterday’s Senegal-Algeria served as a warning against overhyping matches, but there can be no denying that this one has the potential to be a doozy. It’s Morocco against Ivory Coast, for goodness sake! And Hervé Renard, aiming for a third triumph with a third country, against his former sidekick Ibrahim Kamara, striving to lead the Elephants to where Renard previously took a far stronger herd.
Neither side looked like future champions in their openings games at this tournament but both made off with 1-0 wins and have lots of room to improve. Winning today would guarantee a place in the knockout stages. On paper you’d have to make Morocco slight favourites – in Hakim Ziyech and Younès Belhanda they have two ingenious creators – but they have an ageing defence and have not been on song lately, having spluttered through the qualifying stages (drawing with Comoros and Malawi is not a portent of imminent greatness), lost all of their warm-up games and needed a last-minute own goal to creep past Namibia in their first match. And, of course, they have a recent history of underperforming at this tournament, having somehow failed to make it out of the group stages since 2004. Renard was brought in to address that failing, so let’s see how he goes about it here.
The Elephants have not exactly wowed onlookers on their way here either. They finished second in their qualifying group below Guinea and laboured to beat South Africa in their first match here. But there are hints that they might be emerging from what we may call a transitional period, and they have attackers who can do serious damage, most thrillingly Nicolas Pépé, who has been linked this summer with a move to every big club with a half-decent scouting system, and also to Manchester United (honk!). Maybe even Wilfried Zaha will get a run out today. We await the team news with interest. Until then, let’s look on the bright side and say we have a barnstormer in store. It’s on!
