Morocco vs Rwanda Prediction & Betting Tips - African Nations Championship

Prediction published on 20/01/2020, 03:24  by Nella Wagah | Modified on 20/01/2021 at 03:29 in African Nations Championship Predictions

Defending champions Morocco started their African Nations Championships (CHAN) campaign on a high, with a 1-0 win over Togo in Group C. When they take on Rwanda in the second game, they will be aiming at a win to secure their passage to the next stage. On the other hand, Rwanda had a 0-0 draw with Uganda for a start and are joint second in the group. Right from the qualifiers, Morocco has been a good performer in this competition. It has to do with the fact that a big number of their locally based players have a very good understanding of the African terrain, being regulars in the CAF club competitions. The nation has four straight clean sheets and six in seven in CHAN matches; both finals and qualifiers. They have failed to score in just two of the last 12 and are unbeaten in the run. Their only defeat in 18 CHAN matches came in the 2016 tournament in Rwanda, when they fell 1-0 to Ivory Coast. They met Rwanda in that competition and the result in Group A then was a 4-1 win for Morocco. Rwanda had already qualified for the next stage at that point, while Morocco was eliminated despite the win. In their opening win in this year’s finals, Morocco didn’t have an easy game against Togo. Yahya Jabrane had to retake his penalty after being saved by the Togo keeper, who was adjudged to have moved before the kick was taken. 

Rwanda have no win in six straight matches. Here they will be without their professional players and will be hoping to address the winless run against a very formidable side. A 2-1 aggregate win over Ethiopia in the final round of qualifiers secured their third straight appearance at the competition. Last time, they won just one of their group matches, and fell out after finishing third in the pool. Jacques Tuyisenge of APR will without doubt be their key man in this competition and he had bright flashes against Uganda in the 0-0 draw. He stints in Kenya and Angola where he got some experience playing in CAF club competitions. The skipper is thus expected to be an asset here. The Rwandese do not command a run as good as Morocco’s in CHAN matches – they have four wins in 14 matches. Judging by the performance of their clubs in CAF competitions, they will definitely struggle here. In the last seven CHAN matches, Rwanda have failed to score in four and in the remaining three, they haven’t scored more than one goal. In the last CHAN finals, played in Morocco, Rwanda scored just one goal in the win over Equatorial Guinea.