Tunisia vs Namibia Prediction: Carthage Eagles to break Brave Warriors resistance

Tunisia and Namibia make their entrances into the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations with a Group E clash at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium on Tuesday evening (KO, 17:00).

The contest in Korhogo precedes a fixture between fellow Group E participants Mali and South Africa at the same venue later in the evening, with Mali installed as the early favourites to emerge as winners.

Tunisia will be fancied to take second spot while Namibia are still looking for their first win at the finals after losing seven and drawing two of their nine games across the three previous tournaments they have played in.

Team News

Tunisia's only goalscorer at the 2022 FIFA World Cup - Wahbi Khazri - retired from international football after their last group game, so much of the attacking burden is now placed on the shoulders of captain Youssef Msakni (Al Arabi), who has 22 goals in 98 caps.

Naim Sliti (Al Ahli Doha) also has a decent record for his national team, scoring 14 times in 73 appearances, while other notable names in the squad include midfielders Anis Ben Slimane (Sheffield United) and Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt).

Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri - on the brink of a move to Sevilla - withdrew from the tournament to focus on his club career.

The majority of Namibia's squad plays either in their homeland or neighbouring South Africa, but followers of the English Football League will be familiar with Ryan Nyambe (Derby County), who started his career at Blackburn Rovers.

Namibia's all-time top scorer with 16 goals - Peter Shalulile (Mamelodi Sundowns) - will be expected to inspire the Brave Warriors in attack alongside 10-goal forward Deon Hotto (Orlando Pirates).

Match Odds

Tunisia arrive into this one as heavy favourites, with the Carthage Eagles 1/3 to win and their opponents 8/1 to take the victory. The draw, meanwhile, can be found at 3/1.

Both teams to score on Tuesday is 7/4 and it's 5/4 for over 2.5 goals.

Tunisia to win to nil @ 4/5

Tunisia are a notoriously tough team to break down.

The North African nation conceded just three times in five matches as they were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the 2021 AFCON (played in 2022), and they displayed their resolve later in the year with a resilient showing at the World Cup in Qatar, where they kept clean sheets against both Denmark and France - beating the latter 1-0 in the process - and conceded just once to Australia.

Tunisia have kept five clean sheets in their last eight games stretching back to September 7, winning four of them to nil, and the three games they did concede in during that run were against strong opposition with world-class attackers (Japan, South Korea, Egypt).

Namibia shouldn't pose much of a threat to the Tunisia goal, however - the Brave Warriors have failed to score in four of their last five matches.

Half-time correct score - 0-0 @ 13/10

Namibia's chances of scoring on Tuesday may be small but they should be hopeful of avoiding a heavy defeat and staying in the game for as long as possible.

Four of the Southern Africa country's last five contests have failed to produce a goal before the referee's half-time whistle, and that includes a friendly against traditional powerhouses Ghana last week.

Goals haven't been plentiful in the opening period of Tunisia ties, either, with half (four) of their last eight matches seeing a half-time score of 0-0.

It could be another tight affair between these sides in Korhogo.

Check out the rest of our AFCON Betting Tips here.