Ivory Coast vs DR Congo tips and predictions: Both teams to score amid card chaos

Ivory Coast were fortunate to escape Group A at the African Cup of Nations, but two nail-biting victories later they’re favourites to progress to the final.

It’s an outcome that was a short price pre-tournament as the Elephants were expected to excel on home soil, but it hasn’t been convincing.

One win in three group matches preceded a late equaliser and penalty shootout win against Senegal before Simon Adingra’s 90th-minute goal forced extra time against Mali.

The hosts had been down to 10 men since the 43rd minute when Oumar Diakite settled it in the 122nd minute before being shown a second yellow for exuberant celebrations.

Congo went winless in their group but as Morocco were the only side to pick up maximum points in a game, three points saw them through.

They held 10-man Egypt to a 1-1 draw in the round of 16 before finally getting their first win in the quarter-finals when Brentford's Yoane Wissa was among the scorers as they beat Guinea 3-1.

With two wins across 10 matches between these teams and 90 minutes standing between them and the final, the AFCON is nothing if not a test of your devotion to watching football.

There have been under 2.5 goals in eight of those games, five of which finished a draw and there have been under 2.5 goals in nine of the previous 27 semi-final or final matches

However, there’s no real point in backing under 2.5 goals at the current price, so we’ll take some risk in search of a better price.

Although their games have lacked goals, Congo have both scored and conceded in four of five. Likewise, both teams have scored in both of the Ivory Coast’s knockout fixtures.

Another market we could exploit is cards. There’s been a total of 16 yellows and 3 reds in the hosts’ knockout games, and nine of those yellows and one red came inside 90 minutes.

This will be a physical game and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see cards for tactical fouls, frustration fouls and time-wasting if someone is ahead late on.

Key stats

- Ivory Coast have won one of their five matches at AFCON
- There have been 19 cards shown in Ivory Coast’s previous two matches
- Congo have won one of their five matches at AFCON
- Both teams have scored in four of Congo’s five matches

Suggested bets

Both teams to score

Over 42.5 booking points