2023 African Nations Championship

The first major football tournament of the year is the 2023 African Nations Championship. Our team of betting experts will guide you through the competition with their free expert predictions.

Presentation and Predictions for the 2023 African Nations Championship

chan-trophy

The new year begins with the 2023 African Nations Championship, also known as CHAN. First held in 2009, this was due to take place last year but due to a congested fixture list it was decided to play the tournament in 2023. It takes place in Algeria from January 13 to February 4 with the final being held at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Baraki. What's the difference between this tournament and the African Cup of Nations? Well, to be able to play in the African Nations Championship, players must be signed up to an African team. That means the 18 countries that have qualified for the finals won't be able to field any of the many African players who ply their trade in other parts of the world. The reigning champions are Morocco who have won this title in its past two stagings. However, a hat-trick of wins will not take place. Just days before the tournament was due to begin, they withdrew but were only going to field an under-23 side.

Make your selections at Bet365

How Does the 2023 African Nations Championship Work?

mandela-stadium

18 countries have qualified for these 2023 African Nations Championships. Egypt and Tunisia both withdrew from the competition before the qualifying rounds started. Tunisia are the only one of the five African nations that took part in the 2022 World Cup that won't be in Algeria. However, they'll be fielding very different teams due to the rules of this competition.

The 18 countries have been drawn into five groups. Three of these have four teams in them and the other two have just three. The top two countries in the groups with four teams in them qualify for the knockout stages. Those groups that have just three countries in them will only see the group winners progress.

There will be eight countries remaining after the group stages. They then play the quarter finals, followed by the semi-finals, a third and fourth place play-off and then the final. It promises to be an exciting tournament and you can follow all of it on Sportytrader.

Claim your Bonus here!

The Draw for the Quarter Finals of the 2023 African Nations Championship

Algeria v Ivory Coast
Niger v Ghana
Senegal v Mauritania
Madagascar v Mozambique

Final Group Tables

Group A - Algeria 9, Mozambique 4, Libya 3, Ethiopia 1
Group B - Senegal 6, Ivory Cost 4, Uganda 2, DR Congo 2
Group C - Madagascar 5 Ghana 3, Sudan 0 Morocco were in this group but have withdrawn.
Group D - Mquritania 4, Angola 2, Mali 1
Group E - Niger 4,Cameroon 3, Congo 1

The winners of Group A play the runners up in Group B in the quarter finals. The winners of that match face a semi-final against either the winners of Group B or Group D. The bottom half of the draw ses the winners of Group C take on the runners-up in Group A. Their semi-final opponents will be either the winner of Group E or the runners-up in Group C.

Make your choices at Bet365

How to Make Reliable Predictions on the 2023 African Nations Championship?

aribi

When you place bets on the 2023 African Nations Championship, it is important to take certain factors into consideration. The ones our betting experts recommend the most are listed below. Follow these and your chances of betting success will be increased:

Check the form of the two teams playing - This is important but remember there will be plenty of team changes from the usual sides fielded by the participating nations. Pay close attention to the early games to see which countries are playing well and in with a good chance of winning the 2023 African Nations Championship.
Know what the form the key players are in - Again, do some research. Look through the squads that the countries name and look to see how they have been playing in recent matches. Who's scoring goals, who has been putting on good defensive performances and which players haven't been doing as well as might be expected.
Know the team line-ups - Make sure you follow the team news. It's so frustrating if you place a bet on a team and then afterwards discover that key players aren't going to be on the pitch.
Look at previous results - With this competition having different qualification rules for who can play, it is important to look back at previous African Nations Championships. For example, Morocco have won the last two tournaments and major countries such as Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria have never won the African Nations Championship.
Study the tactics of the two teams - How do the coaches of each team plan to approach their upcoming match? Will they be going all-out to get a win or play a careful game and perhaps even settle for a draw?
How important is the match? - This won't apply to the early group matches but will for the last one played. A country may have already qualified for the knockout stages so may opt to leave out some key players. Alternatively, a country may have already been eliminated and decides to make changes and blood some inexperienced or fringe players. This can affect the result, just take the French loss to Tunisia in the 2022 World Cup when they rested players for their final group game.

See the latest odds at VBet

Key Statistics for the 2023 African Nations Championship

football-world-cup-betting-tips-7

It is also important to take a close look at the statistics for a major competition such as the African Nations Championship. Below are key stats taken from the last championships that were held in 2020.

Total Goals scored

The 32 games that were played saw 62 goals scored. That's just an average of 1.98 goals per game and that's low for a football tournament.
There were 24 group games played and 46 goals scored in them.
In the knockout stages, there were 16 goals scored in the eight matches played. That's an average of two goals per game but take a closer look at the results. 11 goals were scored in three of the knockout matches, that means the other five produced just five games, an average of one a match.
37 of the 64 goals scored in the 2020 African Nations Championship came in the second half.

Under and Over statistics

Only 12 of the 32 games played in the last tournament finals had over 2.5 goals scored in them, that's just 37.5%
62.5% of games played had under 2.5 goals scored in them.
17 of the 32 games had over 1.5 goals scored in them.
Only six matches had over 3.5 goals scored.

Margin of victory

12 out of 32 games were won by exactly one goal.
Just five matches were won by a two-goal margin

Draws

60% of matches played ended in draws after 90 minutes
22 out of 32 matches saw the game level at half-time.
Half the games were goalless at the break.

Other Stats

Only 12 of the 32 games saw both teams score, again that's just 37.5% of matches played.
There were only six penalties scored in the 2023 African Nations Championship
The most frequent score was 1-0 (8 games) followed by seven that ended 0-0 after 90 minutes.

Claim the Bwin Bonus here!

Our Predictions for the 2023 African Nations Championship

morocco

This isn't an easy tournament to predict. The qualification rules for players mean we'll be seeing some very unfamiliar line-ups indeed. For example, Algeria have a squad in which no player has more than nine caps but that didn't stop them winning all three of their group games. Senegal are the reigning African Cup of Nations champions and going well in this tournament too.

Bet on African Nations Championship now!