3 predictions for Ivory Coast vs Bafana Bafana – 2023 friendly

Bafana Bafana players training ahead of Ivory Coast friendly — Credit: Icon Sport

Ivory Coast will take on Bafana Bafana at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan in an international friendly encounter on Tuesday evening.

After losing to Zambia on June 17, Ivory Coast picked up a win over Lesotho before drawing with Morocco and they will be looking to extend their unbeaten streak to three as they take on South Africa.

Meanwhile, Bafana Bafana extended their unbeaten run to four games with two wins and two draws. Nonetheless, their recent goalless draw with Eswatini raises many doubts about the teams attacking strength. It'll be interesting to see how Broos' men fare against the AFCON host on Tuesday evening.

Ivory Coast vs Bafana Bafana team news

Ivory Coast has had a star-studded side over the last few years, and it's very likely to see Galatasaray's Wilfried Zaha starting this match after coming off the bench against Morocco last week.

Franck Kessie in action for Ivory Coast — Credit: Icon Sport

Sebastien Haller should retain his spot in the number-nine role, while Simon Adingra will be hoping to hear his name called to complete the attacking trio, potentially in place of Jonathan Bamba.

On the other hand, Hugo Broos' side will be without Orlando Pirates star forward Zakhele Lepasa as he's not part of the team to play Ivory Coast, the reason for this omission is however not completely clear just yet.

Even at that, Broos has lots of attacking options available in the squad, with the likes of Khanyisa Mayo, Mihlali Mayembela, and Burnley's attacker Lyle Foster all fit and ready to make their country proud.

Ivory Coast vs Bafana Bafana predictions

With CAF FIFA World Cup qualifiers less than a month away and the AFCON tournament set to get underway in January, both sides will relish the opportunity of having one final tune-up game before a busy schedule of international competition starts. Here are 3 predictions for the game.

Prediction 1: Draw

We anticipate a quite cracking game between these teams. On one hand, Bafana Bafana have not lost in their last four games while Ivory Coast have not been beaten in their last three. In that stretch, both countries have drawn two of their last three matches. With nothing really at stake in this clash other than both coaches trying out ways to get their team in the best possible shape, we fancy the game to end in stalemates.

Bafana Bafana player, Lyle Foster — Credit: Icon Sport

Prediction 2: Both Teams to score

The hosts are coming into this game from a 1-1 draw with Morocco in last Saturday's friendly and they've scored in eight of their last ten games. Although Broos' men have failed to find the back of the net in three of their last four matches, we're backing them to score while the Ivoriens extend their goal-scoring run to nine in the past eleven games.

Prediction 3: Less than three goals

Our last prediction for this friendly is on the over/under goal market. These teams have not been particularly goal-scoring in recent times. It's worth mentioning that Jean-Louis Gasset's men have scored just twice in their last four games and Bafana Bafana have only managed one goal in their last four games too. We strongly back this friendly to end with less than three goals scored.