Algeria vs Burkina Faso prediction 28.12.2025 | AFCON

Algeria’s build-up to AFCON could hardly have gone much better. Les Fennecs cruised through Group E without losing a game, finished top on 16 points, and for long stretches barely looked tested.

That calm confidence carried straight into Morocco. Sudan were put away 3-0 in the opener, Mahrez scoring twice and Maza chipping in, and it all felt fairly straightforward.

That result pushed Algeria’s unbeaten competitive run to 18 matches, which is already eye-catching. Look closer, though, and it gets even stronger.

Fourteen wins and eleven clean sheets in that period point to a team that manages matches well, not one that relies on chaos.

Mahrez, now on 38 international goals, is still the reference point. With no injuries picked up in the first game, Vladimir Petković has little reason to shuffle his starting eleven.

Burkina Faso arrive with momentum of their own, and it should not be brushed aside. Les Étalons have won their last five matches and are unbeaten in seven, which puts them right up there among the tournament’s form sides.

Finishing second behind Senegal in qualifying was respectable, but the recent 2-1 comeback win over Equatorial Guinea felt like something more. A statement, maybe.

Brama Traoré’s side have scored at least twice in each of their last four matches, and they managed the same in their last two meetings with Algeria.

That alone will give them belief, even if the odds say otherwise. Edmond Tapsoba’s winner last time out was his fifth international goal, and the Leverkusen centre-back is locked in at the heart of defence.

Georgi Minoungou made a strong case from the bench with his fourth goal for the national side, though Traoré may be reluctant to change a winning lineup.