The final curtain gets drawn this weekend in the Group J World Cup qualifiers as Madagascar welcomes Tanzania. The match schedules for Sunday Mahamasina Municipal Stadium with kickoff at 4 pm.
Tanzania has slim qualifying chances while being three points behind Benin, while the hosts have come to terms with their fading qualifying hopes.
As many of you already know, Madagascar has been experiencing a pretty tough time in its qualifying campaign for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
Having lost on home soil against DRC, they traveled to Benin on Tuesday night, knowing that a win was their only chance of getting past the qualifiers.
After Mounie made it 2-0 to the Squirrels, Dossou struck for a second time with just three minutes remaining before Seydou Doumbia bundled home an own goal for the Kabylians.
Madagascar, who drew attention for their images on billboards showing lions dancing at the World Cup, had drawn 0-0 draws with Senegal and Tunisia before beating the Ivory Coast 2-1 to move into the third-place play-off.
Tanzania has had a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign so far. They’ve struggled to find any form for over a year, and it’s taken until their last three games for them to register a win.
In the last 11 meetings, Tanzania’s record of 2 wins from 8 games is not a pretty sight for a team that wants big points to haul to boost their chances of making a mark at the World Cup qualifiers this year.
Madagascar vs. Tanzania Head to Head
Both sides have two games against each other, with each side taking a win. Here is a look at their previous encounters:
Home
- Benin 2-0 Madagascar
- Madagascar 1-0 DR Congo
- DR Congo 2-0 Madagascar
- Tanzania 3-2 Madagascar
- Madagascar 0-1 Benin
Away
- Tanzania 0-3 DR Congo
- Benin 0-1 Tanzania
- Tanzania 0-1 Benin
- Tanzania 3-2 Madagascar
- DR Congo 1-1 Tanzania
Madagascar Team News
Marignane defender Nomena Andriantiana will get his international debut today in Honduras, where he is expected to play the full 90 minutes, Guadeloupe’s coach Herve Zenghel added.
Tanzania Team News
Given Congo DR’s difficulties in their other games so far, we would not be surprised to see them play a 4-5-1 formation with Gervais Kamata as a right wing-back or as a deep midfielder.
Prediction and Odds
Given slim chances of qualifying, we expect the visitors to turn up and get a win.
- Tanzania Win
- Correct Score: 0-1
- Goals Under 2.5
