Egypt, Congo DR light up Stade Laurent Pokou on Sunday
The fourth match in the round of 16 at the Africa Cup of Nations will see Egypt take on Congo DR at Stade Laurent Pokou on Sunday evening.
The winner of this match will move on to the quarter-final, where they will face either Equatorial Guinea or Guinea, who square off earlier in the day in Abidjan.
Before the tournament commenced, few would have envisioned that Egypt, the seven-time champions, would secure qualification to the last 16 of this competition without winning a single match in the group stages.
However, that is exactly what ended up happening as The Pharaohs managed just three points in their three group stage matches, drawing each of their games by the same scoreline of 2-2.
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During the group stages, Rui Vitoria’s side displayed a mixed bag of performances, which included a resilient showing against Ghana, where they had to come from behind twice in the game, while against Cape Verde, they surrendered the lead on two occasions.
After a frantic end to their final group stage fixture, the Egyptians will be hoping for a more straightforward result here, but history suggests that may not be the case, with four out of their last seven AFCON knockout ties having gone to a penalty shootout.
However, history will also give The Pharaohs confidence heading into Sunday’s showdown, as they have only lost one of their five Africa Cup of Nations encounters against this opponent while winning three and drawing the other.
Meanwhile, Congo DR’s passage to the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations was very similar to Egypt’s as they also failed to win a match in the group stages, drawing each of their three round-robin fixtures.
The Leopards kicked off their AFCON campaign with a 1-1 draw against Zambia before holding the group winners Morocco to a 1-1 draw and eventually got over the line with a stalemate against Tanzania in match three.
With those results, Sebastien Desabre’s side have now failed to win any of their last six matches in all competitions and have only managed one victory in their last 10, which came against Mauritania in World Cup qualifying back in November.
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Of all 16 teams that qualified for the round of 16 in this year’s AFCON, Congo DR scored the second-fewest goals in the group stage matches (2), with only Namibia posting a lower tally over the same period (1).
The Leopards have advanced from the group stage in their last four AFCON appearances, but they were ousted in the first knockout match in both 2019 (drawing 2-2 and losing 4-2 on penalties against Madagascar) and 2017 (losing 2-1 against Ghana in the quarter-final).