Kenya vs Equatorial Guinea: 5 Key Things That Give Harambee Stars Hope for Victory

Kenya will face off with Equatorial Guinea in a friendly match in Turkey on Friday and there are factors that should work in Harambee Stars’ favour.

Harambee Stars are set for a tricky test against Equatorial Guinea when they clash in a friendly match in Turkey on Friday.

The Nzaland Nacional are something of an unknown quantity to Kenya although both sides have faced off once before and they come into the match ranked 10 places higher than Benni McCarthy’s team, sitting in position 99 on the FIFA ranking.

While Harambee Stars will be wary of the quality of the Equatoguineans, recent happenings suggest McCarthy’s men can hold their own against the Central African nation.

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Chaotic World Cup Qualifiers

This is because Equatorial Guinea come into the match on the back of a crisis witnessed in their last international window in October.

The National Thunder were hit by chaos when players refused to honour a World Cup qualifier against Malawi in October over a pay dispute, leading to the sacking of coach Juan Michel and the banishment of some players from the team.

The forfeited match was awarded to Malawi, with a 3-0 win, with coach Casto Nopo appointed on interim basis for their final World Cup qualifier against Liberia, which ended 1-1.

Absence of Star Players

That has seen the star quality of the squad reduced ahead of the match against Kenya, Emilio Nsue, the top scorer at AFCON 2023, among those banished from the team, denying them the experience and quality that would have made Harambee Stars’ even more difficult.

Poor Run of Form

Besides the crisis, their recent results should give Harambee Stars hope of winning. In their last seven games, Equatorial Guinea have won just one and that was a 3-2 victory against African minnows Sao Tome and Principe.

Over that period, they have played Namibia, drawing 1-1 in a World Cup qualifier in March, before two friendly matches against The Gambia and Cameron, which ended in a 2-1 loss and 1-1 draw respectively in June.

They followed it with the win over Sao Tome but a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia followed in September before the chaos that handed Malawi three free points after which they ended their World Cup qualification phase with the draw against Liberia.

Struggles Against ‘Easy Opposition’

On paper, Equatorial Guinea, who reached the Round of 16 at the AFCON 2023, quarter-final in 2021 and finished fourth in 2015, should have gotten wins against Liberia, The Gambia and Namibia but they could not and Kenya will fancy their chances.

Kenya’s Better Head-to-Head Record

Harambee Stars will also be encouraged by the fact that they came up on top the only other time they faced the Nzaland Nacional, having won 1-0 in a friendly match in May 2018.

The match was settled by a 73rd minute goal from Pistone Mutamba and from the current Harambee Stars squad in Turkey, only Michaek Kibwage played a part in the game.