Liberia vs Togo

Liberia next take on Togo in a qualification match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday evening which will be hosted at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium.

The visitors are currently third in Group E with two points for the first four rounds and the hosts only have one point over the same rounds but have been knocked out of qualification.

Liberia had to wait for their return to the main draw of the Africa Cup of Nations last month after they lost two matches to Equatorial Guinea during round three and four of qualifiers.

The Lone Stars have now missed an AFCON 10 times in a row since 2001-02 season, their last index to the tournament proper where they lost in a group stage.

However the team was dumped out of this competition in the early rounds even though they have performed well in other recent competitions such as the CAF World Cup qualifiers where they are third in their group, only one point behind Namibia in second place and three behind Tunisian leaders of the group.

Further on, under the tutelage of the interim coach Thomas Kojo, the Lone Stars tamed the Sierra Leone side in the first round of the African Nations Championship qualifiers a couple of weeks ago . Consequently, the three defeats that the team has incurred in this competition are the only ones they have lost in the last eleven games.

In home ground though, Liberia’s performance has been fairly low standard with only one win out of their last six matches, drew two and lost three out of the remaining five games during the said period.

In the meanwhile, Togo performed considerably better on their home patch against the Desert Warriors in round four after losing to Algeria 5-1 in Annaba in round three. However, they lost 1-0, with Ramy Bensebaini scoring the game's lone goal from the penalty spot.

Therefore, if the Sparrowhawks lose this game and Equatorial Guinea defeats Algeria in the other group match, they will be formally eliminated and out of the running.

However, Dare Nibombe's team will be feeling a little more confident going into this match after they defeated Benin 3-1 on aggregate at the beginning of this month to secure their place in the second round of the African Nations Championship qualifications.

Togo has only lost three of its past 16 games in all competitions (W5 D8 L3) since the end of March 2023, and their rematch with these teams finished in a 1-1 tie.

However, the visitors' road record is less spectacular; in their past 12 games, they have only won twice, and those victories came against Eswatini and Niger, both of whom are lower in the FIFA global rankings than the Sparrowhawks.