Get our football experts’ best Wednesday bets from the AFCON round of 16, the English Championship and Ligue 1.
Let’s get right into our four picks on betPawa. Use our booking code BE4F027 which auto-fills your slip.
🧠 Recommended bets:
- BTTS in Ivory Coast vs Egypt
- Angers to beat Saint-Etienne
- Under 1.5 goals in Mali vs Equatorial Guinea
- West Brom to beat Preston
Ivory Coast vs Egypt
Two-time victors Ivory Coast meet seven-time winners Egypt in arguably the standout round of 16 clash at AFCON 2021. Only hosts Cameroon scored more than the Ivory Coast’s six goals following the group stage, which makes them one of just three sides averaging 2+ goals per match ahead of the knockout phase. However, they’ve only managed to score at least twice across just two of their last eight AFCON knockout games (W5, L3). Ivory Coast is justified favourites, but don’t rule Egypt out, they’re unbeaten in 11 of the 14 all-time competitive H2Hs (W8, D3, L3).
Angers vs Saint-Etienne
Angers is looking to win consecutive games for the first time since August to help reduce their current five-point gap to the European places. They’ll fancy their chances of a win though against a Saint-Étienne side that has lost seven matches on the bounce. The visitors are already eight points from safety, and the absence of AFCON star Wabhi Khazri – who accounts for 39% of their league goals this term – makes matters worse. Les Verts has failed to score in their last three top-flight road trips, whilst they haven’t fired four away scoring blanks in a row since February 2008.
Mali vs Equatorial Guinea
Mali is now unbeaten in nine matches after a solid showing in the groups. A pair of 1-0 wins for the Malians was the result when they faced Equatorial Guinea in AFCON 2017 qualifying, with second-half strikes proving decisive on both occasions. Five of Equatorial Guinea’s last eight matches have also ended 1-0 either way (W5, D2, L1), including all three of their AFCON group games (W2, L1). None of Mali’s last 38 matches has been won by the team conceding first.
West Brom vs Preston
Three late goals saw West Brom beat Peterborough at the weekend. The Baggies retained their fifth-place on the table and continued their unbeaten Championship home campaign (W8, D5), joining Liverpool as the only teams still unbeaten in home league action across England’s top four divisions. Although the hosts have struggled for first-half goals on home turf of late, they have scored an average of 2.5 first-half goals per game across their last five home H2Hs.