Burkina Faso vs Senegal
Africa Cup of Nations
Date: Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Kick-off at 19:00 UK / 20:00 CET
Venue: Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium, Yaoundé.
Senegal has been the most consistently performing nation within the Confederation of African Football over the past few years. This is backed by the fact, with them being the highest placed African nation in terms of the FIFA rankings, currently occupying the 20th position.
However, in all honesty, the national team is yet to display impressive performances worthy of previously mentioned accolades.
They managed to register just one win in the group stages, fighting to draws in the other games. Thus finishing just a point clear of the runners up in the top position.
Les Lions de la Téranga followed it up with a 2-0 win against Cape Verde in the knockout stage, who were reduced to nine men in the 57th minute, having their first man sent off in the 21st minute.
In the quarter finals, the national team sealed a 3-1 win against Equatorial Guinea, in a contest where they were second best in terms of possession and only found the lead in the 68th minute.
Burkina Faso on the other hand are in 60th position in terms of the FIFA ranking, which is the 11th position among African nations.
Having failed to qualify to the group stages of the previous edition of this tournament, they have missed out on the semi-finals just once in their last four appearances in the tournament. However, their best finish came in 2013, where they finished runners up in South Africa.
They finished runners up to hosts Cameroon in the group stages, level on points with 3rd place Cape Verde but progressed due to h2h points.
In the RO16 they got past a 10-man Gabon on penalties. Following it up with an incredible 1-0 win over Tunisia in the quarter-finals, despite getting Dango Ouattara, who scored the only goal of the match, sent off in the 82nd minute.
Burkina Faso vs Senegal Head-to-head
- In four previous duels between the sides, three draws and one Senegalese win have been registered.
- While two of those games ended goalless, the other two games witnessed four combined goals each.
Burkina Faso vs Senegal Prediction
All of Les Étalons’ goals in this tournament have come in the first half. While their opponents have found the back of the net just once in the 1st half in this campaign. Therefore, do not expect them to gain the upper hand at the end of the first half.
Senegal however; are undefeated in this tournament and have their best ranked team in history. They should be able to get the better of Burkina Faso in a low scoring contest, which has been a common occurrence of the tournament.
Sadio Mane has been the talisman for Les Lions de la Téranga in terms of attack. With the Liverpool man being the highest scorer for his team in this competition and also their penalty taker, I have backed him to become the nation’s joint highest goal scorer in history with a goal in the semi-finals.
Burkina Faso vs Senegal Betting Tips
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Burkina Faso (0.5, 1.0) 1st half Asian handicap @ 1.72 odds.
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Senegal to win @ 1.80 odds.
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Sadio Mane to score anytime @ 2.25 odds.
