Sierra Leone Vs Equatorial Guinea match facts
Sierra Leone made a historic return to the competition after 26 years of absence after beating their West African counterpart Benin 1-0 in the last qualifying group games. Sierra Leone came second in their group with Nigeria topping the group. But the Leone Stars have made an impressive start since the start of the TotalEnergies African Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021. Sierra Leone played their first AFCON match against defending champions Algeria, which ended in a goalless draw. The match against Algeria is one of the best performances by Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone’s 22-year-old goalkeeper Mohamed N. Kamara alias Fabianski made impressive saves (7) during the march against Algeria, the most by a goalkeeper in an AFCON game since 2015. Leone Stars impressive run continued as they held The Elephants of Ivory Coast to a 2-2 draw coming twice behind. With two incredible draws against pre-tournament favorites, the Sierra Leone national team has gone from ”underdogs” to that team no one would wish to play against.
On the other hand, Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea made their last AFCON appearance in 2015. The Nzalang Nacional lost their first group game of the 2021 TotalEnergies African Cup of Nations against Ivory Coast by a goal to nil. In their second group game against the Desert Lions of Algeria, the Nzalang Nacional shocked the football world as they beat reigning champions Algeria, ending Algeria’s 34-match unbeaten run.
Following are the Match Facts from Opta:
- This will be the first encounter between Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea at the Africa Cup of Nations.
- Sierra Leone have only picked up one victory from their seven matches at the Africa Cup of Nations (D3 L3), though they’d scored as many goals in their last match (2 vs Côte d’Ivoire), as they had done in their previous six combined in the competition (2).
- Equatorial Guinea have only lost two of their eight group stage games at the Africa Cup of Nations (W4 D2), keeping a clean sheet in three of their last four such matches, including last time out versus Algeria.
- No Equatorial Guinea player has been directly involved in more shots at this edition of the Africa Cup of Nations than José Machín (7 – 3 shots, 4 chances created), while Machín has had more touches (115) and attempted more passes (91) than any of his teammates at this tournament.
- Coming into matchday three of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, Sierra Leone’s Mohamed Nbalie Kamara has made more saves than any other goalkeeper (12), including saving Franck Kessié’s penalty last time out against Côte d’Ivoire.
Match Card
Date: 20 January 2022
Time: 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT)
Venue: Limbe Stadium, Limbe
Group: E
Match: Sierra Leone v Equatorial Guinea
