AFCON Quarterfinals Tactical Preview

Breaking down all four AFCON quarterfinal matches

Everything went according to plan in the Round of 16, but it took extra time for some of the favorites.

Egypt needed two goals in extra time to beat Benin, Algeria narrowly edged DR Congo, and favorites Morocco needed a second half goal to beat Tanzania 1-0.

Because all of the favorites won, it now sets up four really exciting quarterfinal matches.

What is beautiful is I don’t think there is one clear headliner, because every team in quarterfinals is a top 10 team in Africa.

It should be a really exciting weekend in Africa, so let’s dive into each matchup.

Note: Simulations are at the bottom of the article.

Mali vs. Senegal

Mali in Possession vs. Senegal out of Possession

There is not much to take away from Mali’s Round of 16 match against Tunisia since they were playing down a man for a majority of the match.

They are likely going to concede a lot of possession to Senegal and look to hit them in transition moments.

They are going to play direct from goalkicks, which means that their success in this match will come down to how many duels and second balls they win.

You can see that Mali is winning the highest percentage of ground duels by a pretty wide margin.

image via Opta the Analyst

With that being said, Mali has created under one expected goal in their last three matches and Senegal has only allowed a total of 2.38 non-penalty expected goals during this tournament, so it’s likely going to be a struggle for them to create high quality chances.