Ethiopia vs Mozambique Prediction & Betting Tips - African Nations Championship

Prediction published on 12/01/2023, 20:28  by Daniel Ngulu in African Nations Championship Predictions

Ethiopia will start their African Nations Championship campaign with a game against Mozambique in Group A of the competition, looking to go past the group stage, where they reached in the 2014 and 2014 editions, the only times they participated. Playing in the same group as hosts Algeria, and former winners Libya, these two won’t attract the favorites status here and so an opening win will be crucial for either side. Ethiopia saw off South Sudan and Rwanda in the qualifiers to get here and with a run of six straight unbeaten matches they’ll have reason to view this as a winnable game. They have clean sheets in all the six matches and even in the qualifiers, they went through without conceding a goal, while scoring six times. The team is made up largely of the main team that played at the AFCON last year in Cameroon and veteran Getaneh Kebede will be a man to watch.

Mozambique aren't coming into this competition on the back of a very strong run. They lost 2-1 to South Africa in their last game, a friendly match in November, and will be targeting a better start to 2023. They now have just one outright win in the last eight matches; a 1-0 away win over Zambia in the qualifiers to this competition. They also registered three clean sheets in the qualification process, only conceding one goal – in their away game against Malawi. Mozambique haven't managed more than a goal in their last 22 matches; the last time they scored twice in a game was in 2021, in a COSAFA Cup game against Malawi, which they won 2-0. In the same breath, they’ve conceded more than a goal in just one of the last 11 matches, and as a result, only one of their last 11 matches have had over 2.5 goals.