Three important points are up for grabs in the 2023 African Nations Championship on Monday afternoon when Mali and Angola go head-to-head at the Olympic Stadium.
Both teams will be keen to make a winning start to life in Group D, where they will battle with Mauritania for a place in the knockout stages of the competition.
Mali were held to a goalless stalemate against Tunisian side Chebba on Friday afternoon in their concluding warm-up fixture at the Nelson Mandela Stadium.
Nouhoum Diane’s men saw their struggles in front of goal continue but also put on a solid display at the other end, recording a third consecutive clean sheet.
Les Aigles have now stretched their unbeaten run across all competitions to four games either side of the new year since suffering a 4-0 defeat to Algeria in October.
Next up is the challenge of an opposing outfit who are yet to emerge victorious in any of the previous three meetings between the teams, losing two of them.
Aiming to go one better than the 2020 edition of the CHAN where they got to the grand finale, Mali set out to lay down an early marker in their opening group fixture.
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Angola wrapped up their preparations for the upcoming African Nations Championship with a 1-1 draw against Servette FC at Stade de Geneve on Tuesday.
Pedro Goncalves’s men went behind to Samba Diba’s 24th-minute opener before Jo Paciencia restored parity just shy of the half-time whistle.
As a result, the Black Antelopes are now without defeat in eight matches on the spin dating back to July, and that is their longest unbeaten run in over two years.
Off the back of a group-stage exit in their most recent appearance at this level in 2018, Angola will be keen to give a better account of themselves this time around.