Matchday five of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers is upon us this Wednesday when Gambia heads to South Sudan off the back of victories in their last games back in the March international break.
It's been a struggle for South Sudan throughout their games in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers so far. Their run started with a meeting against Gambia last year where Jallow scored for the latter and won the game 1-0.
One day to go for the match day—Bright Star intensifies training. #Brightstar #afcon #SupportSportResort pic.twitter.com/Npc5ZnZkaD— South Sudan Football Association (@ssfa_com) June 12, 2023
One day to go for the match day—Bright Star intensifies training. #Brightstar #afcon #SupportSportResort pic.twitter.com/Npc5ZnZkaD
South Sudan would then meet with Mali in their next game just a few days later.
They did take the lead that day thanks to an own goal from Mali, although they equalised in the second half before two goals in the 90th minute for Mali won them the game.
South Sudan would finally get the win by defeating Congo in their third game of the qualifiers after Chol scored in the 66th minute to give his side the lead.
An own goal from Bifouma looked to have earned Congo a draw before Okello scored in the 90th minute to hand South Sudan their first few points on the board.
Despite this, they went on to lose to Congo in the following game and now have just two games left and are looking increasingly more unlikely to make their way into the final tournament of the Africa Cup of Nations.
In fact, if they fail to win here and Congo get a point against Mali, South Sudan will officially be unable to make it into the competition for next year.
They should, however, be proud to have gotten this far after defeating Djibouti 5-2 on aggregate in the preliminary round. This saw South Sudan win 4-2 in the first leg before a 1-0 win away from home.
As for Gambia, they are sitting with two wins and two defeats from four games so far and are behind Congo on the head-to-head record.
Gambia managed to defeat Chad 3-2 in their preliminary round after a 1-0 win away from home before a 2-2 draw back in Gambia.
In their wins, Gambia have defeated Mali 1-0 after a finish from Omar Colley and a 1-0 win over South Sudan in their first encounter. Apart from this, Gambia have lost to Congo and were also beaten 2-0 by Mali back in March.
Forebet predicts a draw here and for the game to see under 2.5 goals.