Host nation Mauritius will do battle against Pakistan on Sunday in the opening encounter of the 2023 Mauritius Four Nations Cup at the Anjalay Stadium.
Both teams will be aiming to get off to a good start in the inaugural edition of a friendly tournament, where they are joined by Kenya and Djibouti.
Match preview
Mauritius will take to the field for the first time in just under a year following their shambolic outing at the 2022 COSAFA Cup in South Africa.
Tony Francois's men were beaten in all of their group-stage matches to finish bottom of Group B with no points on the board and a goal difference of -6.
As a result, Les Dodos have now been beaten in all but three of their last 18 outings across all competitions heading into this weekend's affair.
Coming up next is a first-ever meeting against an opposing outfit who are currently 15 places below in the latest FIFA rankings of all national teams.
Having failed to come out on top in front of their fans since 2016, Sunday's hosts now go in search of a long overdue victory on home turf to help kick off the Four Nations Cup on a positive note.
Pakistan were on the receiving end of a narrow 1-0 loss against the Maldives in the sides' friendly fixture at Laamu Gan Zone Stadium on March 21.
Ibrahim Aisham opened the scoring just shy of the midway point of the first half, and that was enough to put Shahzad Anwar's men to the sword.
That was a seventh defeat on the spin for Pak Shaheen, with the South Asian side only managing to find the back of the net on three occasions in that time.
Aiming to avoid coming away empty-handed from an eighth consecutive away involvement, Sunday's visitors have work to do on both ends of the pitch if they are to secure a positive result.
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Team News
Twenty-year-old Abdullah Iqbal is set to be unavailable for Pakistan as he remains on club duty with Danish second-tier outfit B 93 Kopenhagen.
Otis Khan and Harun Hamid only just teamed up with the rest of their teammates earlier on Friday and both players could have to start from the bench here.
Mauritius' Andy Sophie has 11 international goals to his name - the most of any active player for his country - making the forward one to keep an eye on.
Loic Michel was handed a rare outing last time out but Kevin Jean-Louis is expected to return between the sticks for this weekend's home side.
Mauritius possible starting lineup:
Jean-Louis; Balisson, Castel, Speville, Agathe; Jackson, Rasdarising, Calcutta, Botlar; Sophie, Brasse
Pakistan possible starting lineup:
Hanif; Hayat, Shah, Khan, Wali; Mohammad, Ghazi, Uzair; Bashir, Waheed, Dost
We say: Mauritius 1-0 Pakistan
Both teams are renowned for their inefficiency in front of goal, so we are anticipating a low-scoring affair in this one. That said, we can see Mauritius just about managing to come out on top in the end.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
