Day 6 Africa Cup of Nations Tips: Back tournament's big names to serve up goals

• Ivory Coast to entertain again

• Osimhen to be Nigeria's main threat

• Kudus key to Ghana revival

Equatorial Guinea vs Guinea Bissau - Thu, 14.00

Equatorial Guinea are deservedly favourites to win in Thursday's opening game. They're 13/102.30 to collect all three points with Guinea Bissau 21/103.10 and the Draw 8/52.60.

Of the two teams, Equatorial Guinea have far better credentials. They reached the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals in Cameroon two years ago and head into this game on an 11-game unbeaten run (W5-D6-L0) in all competitions, which includes their 1-1 opening-game draw with Nigeria.

Guinea Bissau lost 6-2 against Mali in their pre-tournament friendly, and then lost 2-0 to Ivory Coast in the tournament's opening match. Their five-game form is W1-D1-L3, and man for man they look the more limited side.

We've no selection on this game but fully expect Equatorial Guinea to pick up at least a point.

Ivory Coast vs Nigeria - Thu, 17.00

Thursday sees the start of the second round of group games and tactics will come into play as teams look to qualify for the knockout phase, or put themselves in a prime position to do so.

Such tactics are worth being aware of ahead of these games as things may not always be as straightforward as they appear to be.

Ivory Coast won their opening their game (2-0) against Guinea Bissau. With three points on the board, they're under relatively little pressure. A draw against Nigeria would put them on the brink on the knockout phase with a winnable final group game against Equatorial Guinea awaiting them.

Nigeria could only draw their opening game (1-1) against Equatorial Guinea. Even though they've just one point on the board, however, Nigeria may be willing to settle for a second consecutive stalemate here.

A draw against strong tournament hosts Ivory Coast would be a perfectly acceptable result and up the Super Eagles' tally to two points before they face Guinea Bissau, probably Group A's weakest side, in their final group game.

Attackers on top

All of which means that this could be a cagey affair. There's absolutely no reason why Ivory Coast will feel compelled to come out and attack as strongly as they did in the opening 2-0 win vs Guinea Bissau, although the large home crowd may encourage them to do so. Nigeria will surely devote some of their energy to defending better than they did on Matchday 1.

That said, there's an immense amount of attacking talent on display here, and I suspect that this will win out in the end. As the host nation Ivory Coast will come out and attack at some point, and whatever their intentions it's debatable whether Nigeria have the quality to improve considerably on the somewhat shaky defensive showing they posted in their first match.

Also, for all that they scored only once against Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria looked more dangerous than the 1-1 final scoreline suggests. Victor Osimhen found the net and had other chances, too, and can be backed at 11/43.75 in the Anytime Goalscorer market here.

At the time of writing you can back the game to have two or more goals at around evens on the Goal Lines market. Given the attacking talent on display, we'd rather be Overs than Unders. With our selection, you'll make a profit as long as the game has two or more goals.

Egypt vs Ghana - Thu, 20.00

It's impossible to make a strong case for Ghana winning this match given how poor they were in losing their first game against Cape Verde.

Chris Hughton's Black Stars had been struggling for form heading into the tournament and there were no signs of improvement as they lost 2-1 in their opening encounter.

Egypt are 2.0811/10 favourites, with Ghana 4.67/2 and the Draw 2.942/1. Those odds look about right based on the form and general quality of the two sides.

One thing we do know about Ghana is that they are obliged to have a go here. After losing their opening match there's an urgency to collect points that their approach should reflect.

Black Stars to pose threat up front

The second thing we know is that Ghana's attacking potential is considerable. Defender Alexander Djiku scored their only goal against Cape Verde, but there are attacking players in their squad capable of posing a real threat here.

Jordan and Andre Ayew are among them, while Mohammed Kudus may be fit to return after missing Ghana's opening game through injury. The Black Stars would be far more dangerous with the West Ham star back in their side. Kudus is 9/25.50 in the Anytime Goalscorer market.

Over 1.75 & 2.0 is available on the Goal Lines market at around evens. Given that Ghana have to go for it, and that Egypt and Ghana both scored while also both conceding twice in their opening games, we'd rather be on Overs than Unders.

An alternative would be to back Yes in the Both Teams to Score market. This selection is available at 11/82.38, and those odds are tempting given the urgency for Ghana to collect points, plus the way these two teams defended in their opening games.

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