It was not until the last quarter of an hour of play of the third meeting of the group stage to see Algeria score a goal in this CAN 2022. An achievement by Sofiane Bendebka, against Côte d’Ivoire, who is came to save the honor of the Fennecs, whose possession had until then been sterile in the competition. Algerian stars, especially in the attacking sector, failed to find the net.
Forty-three strikes for one small goal. This starving stat largely explains the elimination of the Fennecs from the 2022 African Cup of Nations. Djamel Belmadi’s men, undefeated since October 2018, advanced with the status of favorites in the competition, but broke their teeth facing opposing cages.
As soon as they entered the tournament, against Sierra Leone, the Algerians were disgusted by the success of goalkeeper Mohamed Kamara, author of the match of his life to repel some of the 19 Algerian strikes. For their second meeting, against Equatorial Guinea, Djamel Belmadi had chosen to change his striker, replacing Islam Slimani with Baghdad Bounedjah, without more success on the 13 attempts of the Greens.
Behind them, the other Fennecs attackers did not show themselves more prominently in the competition. Sofiane Feghouli was particularly transparent against Equatorial Guinea while wingers Youcef Belaïli and Riyad Mahrez attempted a few solo breakthroughs which rarely succeeded. The success completely fled the Manchester City striker, even on the penalty spot, where he found the post against Côte d’Ivoire.
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Djamel Belmadi: “Difficult to make a rational analysis after such a big disappointment”#ALGCIV pic.twitter.com/pdZXTL4pY5— beIN SPORTS (@beinsports_FR) January 20, 2022
At the end of the meeting, Djamel Belmadi showed his incomprehension in the face of this lack of efficiency: “From the moment we don’t realize our chances like since the start of the tournament, doubt sets in. Even from the penalty spot, it’s hard to score. We haven’t shown ourselves to be up to the competition”. His men will have to quickly erase these doubts and reassure themselves for their next deadline, the 2022 World Cup play-offs, for which they will know their opponent on Saturday January 22.