The coach of Algeria could only see the damage after the surprise elimination of the Fennecs at the CAN.
“Difficult to make a rational analysis immediately after such a big disappointment“: coach Djamel Belmadi had trouble digesting the elimination of Algeria, reigning African champions, from the group stage of the CAN in Cameroon, after another defeat against Côte d’Ivoire (3 -1) Thursday in Douala.
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How do you explain this elimination?
Djamel Belmadi: Difficult to make a rational analysis immediately after such a big disappointment. We were keen on this match to catch up a little, at least from an accounting point of view, if not the way, to say that we are in this competition, that it starts today . Something we couldn’t do. From the moment when, since the start of the tournament, we have not realized our opportunities, doubt may have arisen. We’ve always had situations, a little less today against Ivory Coast, but we couldn’t score. Even the penalties, it is difficult to score them. So, we were simply not up to the competition.
You gave Riyad Mahrez a vacation before a major tournament, is that a mistake?
You don’t have the ins and outs (of this situation) but you say that I gave him a vacation. It’s wrong. You don’t know what it is. I don’t think this is the right place or the right time to talk about it. Start pointing fingers at the players who have given you so much happiness today where things are going badly, at least we are not well informed, at worst, it is dishonest!
What lesson can you draw from this failure before qualifying for the World Cup, can it lead you to start a new cycle?
It’s too early to draw lessons. Of course we will have to take the time to analyze, to understand what went wrong and to try to improve ourselves fairly quickly because the qualifications for the World Cup are coming soon (in March, editor’s note). But I have some ideas. We did not get what we came for in this AFCON. It’s a total failure. The most important thing is not the people, but the national team. We will analyze all this calmly.
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