Prediction Africa Cup of Nations - Chad vs Mauritius

Africa Cup of Nations - Chad vs Mauritius
Match Time: 23-03-2024 02:00 Saturday (GMT+8)
Football Livescore | Match Prediction & Tips
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chad

Having only affiliated with FIFA and CAF in 1988, Chad were a relatively unknown footballing entity until the 1990s and have never qualified for the World Cup or the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Les Sao's AFCON history has been a tumultuous one. In 2017, the side were forced to withdraw from the competition due to financial issues, and were subsequently banned from entering the following edition as well. Then, during qualification in 2021, Chad were disqualified due to government interference.

This year's qualification campaign began in the worst way possible again for coach Kevin Nicaise and co, as they were forced to cancel their first training session due to their bus running out of fuel, which made it impossible for the side to travel from their base camp to the training centre.

Chad played just three matches across the entire of 2023 and lost all of them, two of which were World Cup qualifiers. They are currently on a five-match losing streak and have not won a competitive fixture since October 2019 against Liberia on penalties.

Mauritius

Of the four ties to be played in the preliminary round, this one is the closest from a ranking perspective, with Chad currently ranked 181st in the world and Mauritius currently placed 177th, according to FIFA.

Mauritius will start their journey to reach the Africa Cup of Nations for a second time here, having participated in the continental competition back 1974 when they ended bottom of their group with three losses in three games.

Nevertheless, while the rankings between these sides are close, Les Dodos are heavily fancied to progress to the next round as they have played significantly more matches together in recent times.

In addition, recent form also favours the Mauritians as they held Angola to a 0-0 draw in their latest World Cup qualifier last November and also beat both Kenya (1-0) and Pakistan (3-0) in the last year.

Prediction: Chad 0-1 Mauritius