Nigeria vs Ivory Coast Prediction & Betting Tips - Monde | Championnats Du Monde FIBA , Matchs De Classement

Prediction published on 05/09/2019, 09:45  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 05/09/2019 at 11:11

This 2019 FIBA World Basketball Cup isn't the most straightforward of tournaments, so let's try to explain just what's happening. Nigeria finished third in their initial group behind Russia and Argentina. That ended their hopes of winning the cup, now they are in the 17th to 32nd classification and will aim to finish as high as they can. That all starts with another group and the results from the first group are carried forward but don't play South Korea who they met in the first group. That means they are already top of this group which also includes China, South Korea and their opponents in this game, Ivory Coast. Nigeria lost their first two games in their initial group but then recorded a 108-66 win over South Korea. The Nigerians only won the first quarter by two points but then stormed ahead in the next and were 18 points ahead at half time. Their domination continued in the second half and eventually they won by 42 points.

Ivory Coast finished bottom of Group A with three points from their three games. That sounds decent but you get a point for losing and all three of their group matches ended in defeat. Their three losses were by 15, 16 and 17 points so a reasonable amount of consistency. They are ranked 64th in the world and that's 31 places below their opponents. Ivory Coast finished  14th in the 2017 AfroBasket tournament ompared to Nigeria's silver medal. They faced Nigeria in the group stages and lost by a single point. Nigeria have made some big improvements since then though and are the worthy favourites to win this match. Go for them to win on a -12.5 handicap.