Nigeria vs South Africa Prediction & Betting Tips - AFCON

Prediction published on 07/07/2019, 09:40  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 07/07/2019 at 10:40 in AFCON Predictions

South Africa caused a big shock in the last sixteen when beating the hosts Egypt 1-0. Their opponents had won all of their three previous games without conceding a goal. It looked as if the last sixteen tie was going to end 0-0 but with just five minutes to go, Thembinkosi Lorch scored to give them the surprise win. It's the first time that South Africa have reached the African Cup of Nations quarter finals since 2013. Only once have they won this trophy and that was 23 years ago. They were the draw experts coming into this tournament with five in seven games. Their campaign began with a 1-0 defeat by Ivory Coast but got their first win with a 1-0 defeat of Namibia. A 1-0 loss to Morocco followed but those three points earned against Namibia were enough to take them into the knock-out stages and that win over Egypt.

Nigeria are ranked 45th in the world and that's 27 places higher than their opponents and 13 higher than the Egyptians. They have won this tournament three times, the last coming in 2013. This is their first finals since that win and they came into this tournament in good form. Nigeria had been unbeaten in eight games played since their 2018 World Cup exit. Their final warm-up game ended in a 1-0 loss to highly fancied Senegal. Their tournament got off to a nervy start with a 1-0 win over Burundi and they then beat Guinea by a single goal. Both games had winning goals scored after the 70th minute. They failed to make it three wins out of three when surprisingly losing  2-0 to Madagascar. Their last sixteen game against Cameroon was a thrllling one. They took the lead after 19 minutes but were 2-1 down at half time. Two goals in the space of three second-half minutes gave Nigeria a 3-2 win and ended the reign of Cameroon. This looks like being a tigher game and the tip is for under 2.5 goals to be scored.