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Mali will face South Africa at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium on Tuesday in the opening round of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Eagles have been regulars in the Africa Cup of Nations in recent memory, appearing in 10 of the last 11 editions of the tournament. They carried out a 6-2 demolition of Guinea-Bissau in their last match, with six different players getting on the scoresheet including Salernitana's Lassana Coulibaly who scored his first-ever international goal.
Mali are undefeated in their last seven AFCON group openers and will be looking to continue that streak when they play on Tuesday.
South Africa, meanwhile, will return to the continental showpiece this week after missing out on the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon. They were in action last week, facing Lesotho at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in a friendly clash between the two teams which ended goalless.
Hugo Broos' team were beaten 1-0 by Ivory Coast in their tournament opener back in 2019 and will hope they can find better luck this time around.
Mali vs South Africa Head-to-Head and Key Numbers
- There have been five meetings between the two teams. Both sides have won two games apiece while their other meeting ended in a draw.
- The two sides last faced off in a friendly clash back in October 2019 which South Africa won 2-1.
- Bafana Bafana are unbeaten in their last three games in this fixture, a run dating back to 2014.
- Mali are without a clean sheet in their last four matches across all competitions.
- South Africa have failed to score any goals in five of their last eight games across all competitions.
- The Eagles were ranked 51st in the latest FIFA rankings and now sit 15 places above their midweek opponents.
Mali vs South Africa Prediction
Mali have won two of their last three matches and are undefeated in their last seven outings. They have not had the best of times in this fixture of late but will hope they can snap their winless run against Bafana Bafana this week.
South Africa are on a run of back-to-back winless outings and have won just one of their last five games. The Eagles are in better form ahead of Tuesday's game and should kick off their group-stage campaign with maximum points.
Prediction: Mali 2-0 South Africa
Mali vs South Africa Betting Tips
Tip 1 - Result: Mali to win
Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Under 2.5 goals (Seven of South Africa's last eight matches have produced fewer than 2.5 goals)
Tip 3 - Both teams to score: NO (Both sides have found the back of the net in just two of South Africa's last eight matches)
