Egypt vs Kenya Predictions

This summer saw Egypt’s dreams of a home triumph in the Africa Cup of Nations crumble before their eyes, caught out by South Africa in the first knockout round. It was a bitter blow to the side who were huge favourites pre-tournament, but now they need to pick themselves up for another tilt at glory. Egypt’s road to the next major African championships starts with this week’s clash with Kenya.

The hosts have been enjoying a strong couple of years, following their appearance at the 2018 World Cup alongside their impressive early form in the summer. They won every group stage game without conceding a goal, but a late error against South Africa ended their run early. Egypt remain one of the strongest sides on the continent, with a side built around local talent and topped off with Mo Salah.

Kenya aren’t quite in the same position, although the visitors did make it to the Africa Cup of Nations in the summer. They went out in the group stage of that tournament, which wasn’t a bad result overall. However, their poor form has continued in recent outings. The visitors are winless in five heading into this clash with one of the top sides in Africa.

While Kenya made the cut in the last round of Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, they had their struggles getting there. They dropped points in both away trips, while they scored just four times across their four matches. They failed to score on the road, and now they head to an Egypt side who have been in excellent shape at the back.

Egypt have kept a clean sheet in five of their last six matches, while they’ve seen plenty of tight home games lately. Their last six matches in Egypt have seen fewer than three goals scored. We expect that to continue against a goal-shy Kenya side, with the visitors scoring once in their last five. As a result, we are backing under 2.5 goals as our main tip here.

Given that Egypt have continued their winning run in the autumn, we expect them to come out of this clash with three points. Kenya conceded two goals in each of their Africa Cup of Nations clashes in the summer, while they meet a team who are defensively sound and doing enough to secure victories. We think Egypt will kick off their group with a win here, so we are backing a 2-0 victory for Egypt, which landed in two of their three group games in the summer.