Cameroon vs Algeria Predictions

• Cameroon have failed to win three of their last five games on home soil (in 90 minutes).
• Algeria have avoided defeat in their last three World Cup Qualifying away games.
• Algeria drew twice with Burkina Faso, who drew 3-3 with Cameroon last month, earlier in qualifying.

Desert Foxes too cunning to flop again

Algeria, despite their recent AFCON horror show, are still fundamentally one of Africa’s best and can conquer Cameroon over two legs in their African World Cup play-off.

Djemal Belmadi’s side flopped as holders and favourites in Cameroon earlier this year when they took only one point in a group they should have dominated. The Desert Foxes had more touches in the final third than any other side in the group stage while only Nigeria and Mali had more shots, but were undone when their usually effective pressing game disintegrated late on against Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast.

The 2019 AFCON champions’ should have learned a lot about the awful Douala pitch they will be up against from January’s bitter experience and surely won’t leave themselves open to Cameroon in what may be a real struggle in midfield.

Cameroon have gone for a Song

Late last month, Cameroon’s FA took the somewhat bizarre decision to sack Portuguese coach Toni Conceicao, who had led the Indomitable Lions to third place at their home AFCON Finals in February, and replace him with ex-Liverpool defender Rigobert Song.

Conceicao had lost only three of 28 games in charge, including topping their World Cup qualifying second phase group above Ivory Coast. Song’s previous managerial record is chequered by comparison – he has taken Cameroon’s ‘A’ and Under-23 squad into two tournaments, never got past the group stage and won only one, drawn two and lost three of the six matches.

Cameroon, therefore, are a bit of an unknown commodity here and could either react positively to the fresh ideas of Song or descend into chaos. Rather than back the hosts at a short price here, we’d rather take Algeria to avoid defeat in Douala. A draw may well be the outcome and we note that both these nations have played out stalemates with Burkina Faso recently to signal how closely matched they are, hence our correct score recommendation of 1-1.