AFCON now heads into the quarter-finals with the remaining teams ready to battle it out for Africa’s biggest prize. TheFPLManual shares his best assets, differentials, and budget picks to consider for the final rounds of AFCON Fantasy.
AFCON Round of 16 Review
There were plenty of upsets in the last round as well-respected teams like Nigeria, Mali, and Ivory Cast got knocked out, and we witnessed the rise of smaller nations like the Gambia and Equatorial Guinea that progressed to the Quarter Finals. The round of 16 proved that there are no “favourites” in the competition. We will miss our favourite fantasy players like Simon (€7.4m), Mounkoro (€4.6m), Koné (€6.4m), Pépé (€9.2m), and many other assets which were stand-out picks in the group stage.
Moving forward, I would like to point out a few things every AFCON Fantasy Manager needs to know heading into the Quarter Finals. From now on till the final, every manager gets a total of eight transfers. This means you can do almost a complete overhaul of your team without any worries if most of your current players get eliminated. Also, you can sign four players from one country in your team if you wish to.
A few price changes have occurred in the last couple of hours. Below is a list of recent price rises, so kindly check it out.
New price changes in #AfconFantasy
Price Rises 💸⬆️
Forwards
Toko Ekambi 11m
Aboubakar 9.3m
B. Dieng 6.6m
Ivan Edu 5.7m
J. Siafa 4.6m— FPL Manual (Wale) (@TheFPLManual) January 29, 2022
Kindly take note of the terms I will use later in this thread:
PPG – Points Per Game
SOT – Shot on Target
AFCON Fantasy Player Picks Matchday 5
I’ve divided my player picks into three parts: key players, budget picks, and differentials.
Key Players
Vincent Aboubakar
🇨🇲 Country: Cameroon
💰 Price: €9.6M
📆 Next fixture: Gambia
The Cameroonian forward has an average of 10.8 PPG scoring six goals in the competition so far. Aboubakar is top for most SOTs – 10, with an average of 2.73 shots per 90 mins. The AFCON Legend is one to have in your team.
Karl Toko Ekambi
🇨🇲 Country: Cameroon
💰 Price: €10.9M
📆 Next fixture: Gambia
He has scored three goals, and averaging is 6.0 PPG so far. Ekambi is a big threat up front for the Indomitable Lions. His low 17% ownership could be an advantage to improve rank at this stage, especially after hitting five SOTs against Comoros.
Wahbi Khazri
🇹🇳 Country: Tunisia
💰 Price: €8.2M
📆 Next fixture: Burkina Faso
Though he made a cameo against Nigeria, we all know the Tunis Captain’s threat after his haul in MD2 (17 pts), scoring two goals and providing an assist in the 4-0 win against Mauritania. Khazri has an average of 6.7 PPG.
Achraf Hakimi
🇲🇦 Country: Morocco
💰 Price: €7.4M
📆 Next fixture: Egypt
The Atlas Lions wingback has been on a hot streak in the campaign scoring two freekick goals in his last two games. Hakimi is averaging 9.0 PPG and took six SOTs in the win against Malawi. His numbers speak for themselves.
Sadio Mané
🇸🇳 Country: Senegal
💰 Price: €11.9M
📆 Next fixture: Equatorial Guinea
He is averaging 7.8 PPG and took four SOTs in the last game against Cape Verde. Mané is the star player for Senegal as he has scored about 75% of their goals this campaign and would fancy his chances going forward.
Musa Barrow
🇬🇲 Country: The Gambia
💰 Price: €7.7M
📆 Next fixture: Cameroon
The Gambia captain is still one of the only fantasy assets beside Aboubakar & Hakimi to get an attacking return in every stage of the competition, putting up an average of 7.5 PPG and sevens SOTs in the campaign. Consistency.
Mohamed Salah
🇪🇬 Country: Egypt
💰 Price: €13.1M
📆 Next fixture: Morocco
Even though the Egyptian captain has only a goal in the contest, fantasy-wise, he is not doing bad with the skipper hitting five SOTs in the RO16 against Cote D’Ivoire and scoring the winning penalty to put Egypt in the Quarter Finals.
Budget Picks
If you are looking for cheap starting players, I would recommend the following names:
Forward
🇬🇶 Iván Salvador Edú – €5.6M
Midfielders
🇧🇫 Gustavo Sangaré – €5.1M
Defenders
🇬🇶 Carlos Akapo – €4.5M
🇬🇲 James Gomez – €4M
Goalkeepers
🇬🇶 Jesus Owono – €4.5M
🇬🇲 Baboucarr Gaye – €4.5M
AFCON Fantasy Differential Picks
Youssef En-Nesyri
🇲🇦 Country: Morocco
💰 Price: €9.6M
🚀 Ownership: 8%
📊 Average points: 3.3 PPG
📆 Next fixture: Egypt
En-Nesyri had three shots on target against Malawi and scored a goal for seven points. After getting his first goal, En-Nesyri would be motivated to be on the scoresheet against Egypt.
Bertrand Traoré
🇧🇫 Country: Burkina Faso
💰 Price: €8.1M
🚀 Ownership: 9%
📊 Average points: 6 PPG
📆 Next fixture: Tunisia
The Burkina Faso captain scored eight points last round and was instrumental in the win against Gabon.
Jesus Owono
🇬🇶 Country: Equatorial Guinea
💰 Price: €4.5M
🚀 Ownership: 2%
📊 Average points: 8.3 PPG
📆 Next fixture: Senegal
The Equatorial Guinean keeper is joint top for most clean sheets in the tournament so far.
James Gomez
🇬🇲 Country: The Gambia
💰 Price: €4M
🚀 Ownership: 6%
📊 Average points: 5.8 PPG
📆 Next fixture: Cameroon
The Gambia have three clean sheets in their four games, and Gomez is a regular starter for the side, making him a great enabler at just €4M.
Saliou Ciss
🇸🇳 Country: Senegal
💰 Price: €5.5M
🚀 Ownership: 2%
📊 Average points: 7.7 PPG
📆 Next fixture: Equatorial Guinea
Senegal are yet to concede a single goal, and Saliou Ciss has three cleansheets to go along with 21 duels won.
That brings me to the end of this article. Feel free to like and share it for other AFCON Fantasy managers to read. Wishing you all good luck in the quarter-finals, and have a blessed weekend!
You can find additional AFCON 2021 Fantasy resources here.
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