AFCON: Cote d’Ivoire in make or mar tie against Sierra Leone

Ivory Coast have an opportunity to progress into the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations when they square up to the challenge of Sierra Leone at the Japoma Stadium on Sunday.

Sierra Leone, on the other hand, secured an impressive point in last time out and now seek to build upon that in their second outing.

Ivory Coast managed to scrape past the Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea in a narrow 1-0 victory on Wednesday to get things started on the front foot.

The contest was decided in the fifth minute as Max Gradel scored a peach of a goal to hand Patrice Beaumelle’s men all three points.

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Consequently, the Elephants sit top of the pile in Group E and are two points clear of both Algeria and Sierra Leone.

Next up for the west Africans is a sophomore clash versus an opposing outfit yet to come out on top in any of the five previous meetings between the teams.

However, Ivory Coast have had to settle for a draw in each of the most recent two encounters, which came in the qualifiers for the 2017 AFCON.

Sierra Leone defied all expectations in their opening fixture by holding defending champions Algeria to a goalless draw on Tuesday.

Despite being under the cosh for major parts of the contest, John Keister’s men held firm to record a memorable result in Douala.

The Leone stars have given their chances of progressing into the knockout stages a huge boost, but there is still work to be done in the remaining two matches.

Sierra Leone wrap up their group-stage campaign with a meeting versus Equatorial Guinea, while Ivory Coast take on Algeria.