Burkina Faso vs Mauritania Prediction: Stallions to show strength in Bouake

Burkina Faso will hope to get off to a flying start in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations when they take on Mauritania at Stade de la Paix on Tuesday afternoon (KO, 14:00).

The Bouake encounter will be the second played in Group D, with Algeria and Angola meeting the previous night at the same location.

Burkina Faso's match with Algeria in the second round of fixtures has been billed as a battle for top spot, so the Stallions will expect to secure all three points here against group minnows Mauritania, who haven't won in six attempts at their previous two AFCON's.

In fact, the Lions of Chinguetti have scored just once at the finals, and they face a tough fight to add to their total against Tuesday's opponents, who reached the semi-finals of the last edition.

Team News

Notable names in the Burkina Faso ranks include Edmond Tapsoba (Bayer Leverkusen), Issa Kabore (Luton Town, on loan from Manchester City), Bertrand Traore (Aston Villa) and Dango Ouattara (AFC Bournemouth), and they are currently above both Ghana and South Africa in the FIFA World Rankings.

Traore hasn't played for nearly two months and missed his country's warm-up matches against Iran (1-2) and DR Congo (2-1), but the 73-cap star is hoping to return to action on Tuesday.

Mauritania, meanwhile, should be encouraged after a 0-0 draw with Tunisia on January 6. Aboubakary Koita (Sint-Truiden) played the full 90 minutes of that game and is expected to shoulder much of the attacking burden at this tournament after scoring 11 goals in 20 Jupiler Pro League appearances for his Belgian side this term.

Ranked 105 by FIFA, Mauritania can also call on ex-Fulham striker Aboubakar Kamara (Al Jazira), who has scored eight goals in 19 caps for his national team.

Match Odds

Burkina Faso are 7/10 to take the victory on Tuesday, with the draw at 21/10 and a win for Mauritania at 4/1.

Both teams to score, meanwhile, is 11/8, and it's 13/8 for over 2.5 goals.

Burkina Faso to win and under 3.5 goals @ 21/20

Three of the opening four matches of the tournament have seen three goals or fewer, so taking the under 3.5 goals bet here is advisable.

Of the favourites, only Ivory Coast emerged victorious, though the mood around the other sides - Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana - was less than positive heading into African football's showpiece event, so perhaps that tells a story in itself.

The atmosphere in the Burkina Faso camp should be better, with the West African country having lost just one of their last six games and with a more than respectable record in this competition recently; the Stallions have reached the semi-finals in three of the last five editions.

They also have recent experience of beating Mauritania, with their friendly last October seeing Burkina Faso emerge 2-1 winners.

Mauritania have failed to win any of their last four games - failing to score in the most recent three - and should fall to another defeat on Tuesday.

Half-time/full-time - Burkina Faso/Burkina Faso @ 7/4

This year's opening round of fixtures have broken the mould so far, with early goals (before the 18th minute) in three of the first four matches. There were also two goals shared in the first half of Nigeria's 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea, so don't be surprised to see an early breakthrough on Tuesday afternoon.

If Burkina Faso do take a lead into the interval, head coach Hubert Velud should be confident of his side holding onto the win, given Mauritania last recovered a positive result from a losing position in August 2022 - 20 games ago.

Check out the rest of our Football Betting Tips here.