Seychelles vs Kenya prediction 20.11.2023

• Competition: World Cup Qualifiers, Africa
• Date: Monday, 20th November 2023
• Kickoff: 19:00 UK / 20:00 CET
• Venue: Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Abidjan)

Seychelles are 195th on the FIFA World ranking list and currently the second-worst team in Africa, only above Somalia. So far, they haven't had an appearance in any major tournament, but considering they are the smallest country on the continent, the lack of success shouldn't really surprise us. They are coming to these World Cup Qualifiers after a terrible COSAFA Cup, where they finished the last in the group with zero points in three games. After that bad run, they had an atrocious World Cup Qualifiers start - losing the first game 9:0 vs Ivory Coast. 

Kenya doesn't have an appearance in the World Cup, either, and that will probably not change any time soon. In the last cycle, they finished 3rd in Group E of the second stage of the Qualifiers and were not close to reaching the WC as they finished the Qualifiers ten points behind 1st-placed Mali. Even though they are not among the best teams in Africa, they had some really good performances in recent years vs Russia, Qatar, Egypt, etc...

Seychelles vs Kenya pick: Kenya to win and cover the -1.5 AH spread

Seychelles played six games this year in all competitions and lost five of them with 19 conceded goals - 3.2 per game. In the first game of the Qualifiers, no one expected a positive result against a strong Ivory Coast team. Still, a 9:0 loss is unacceptable even for Africa's second-worst team. An additional problem for Seychelles is that this match will be played on a neutral pitch in Ivory Coast, so we can exclude a home-pitch advantage. 

Kenya lost the first game of the Qualifiers 2:1 vs Gabon on the road despite having a 1:0 lead. In the last two years, Kenya played 17 games and lost "only" six games. Compared to Seychelles, that is great, considering Seychelles lost 12 of 18 games (67%) in the past two years.

These teams played three h2h games, and Kenya won all three with a combined goal difference of 9:0. Considering the previous h2h games and everything above, we favor Kenya to win this game, perhaps with a couple of goals difference.