Unable to score a single goal, Algeria will go home if they do not beat Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday, January 20, in Douala, in the biggest clash of the first round of CAN 2022 between continental behemoths.
” Emergency situation “, admits Djamel Belmadi, the Algerian coach. “It’s a game that we absolutely have to win. » With only one point and no goals scored, the defending champion knows the contract. The danger is less great for the Elephants, who already have 4 points after their first two matches in group E.
“The worst scenario would be not to qualify with 4 points”, launches coach Patrice Beaumelle. Even, in case of defeat, his Ivory Coast should finish at worst among the four best third.
The Comoros team, third in group C with 3 points, is already less well ranked. But the stakes remain enormous, and “It will be an electric match”, insists Beaumelle.
The Fennecs are therefore really in danger, after a sad 0-0 against Sierra Leone and a surprise defeat against the modest team of Equatorial Guinea (1-0).
The latter (3 points) will face the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone (2 points) in Limbé, on the Cameroonian coast, to grab a second place in the group while the giants fight it out.
Great classic of the CAN, the Algeria-Côte d’Ivoire poster “could have been a final of the competition, believes Belmadi, like in 2019 against Senegal, in the group stage, which ended in the final”. Algeria had also won both.
Mahrez “optimistic”
The coach also brushes off criticism. “No complex” superiority of African champions, he assures. True to his reputation, Belmadi also replied curtly to a question from the media. “On the two meetings, you speak to me of an ‘unrecognizable’, ‘disorganized’ Algeria, I don’t agree at all, I don’t know where you got that from, or if you saw correctly. It is rather an ineffective Algeria, which lacked address, he replied. We conceded only one goal, from a set piece. We will show our moral qualities, Inch’Allah! »
The captain of the Fennecs, Riyad Mahrez, is also “optimistic”. “We do good things, we create a lot of chances, but we lack efficiency”, notes the Manchester City player. “The pressure, we live with, a little more pressure perhaps, given the situation, we absolutely have to win, adds Mahrez. But sometimes we have to go through it, it forges the group, the team, it pushes us. »
African champion 2019, eighth finalist of the 2018 World Cup, the “Greens” have shown they know how to play under pressure, insists Mahrez, who “don’t think about losing or going home”. “I really believe that we will pass, and I can assure you that we will give everything, I am optimistic, I hope that we will stay in Cameroon for a long time”, concludes the technical leader and star of Algeria.
Less under pressure, Patrice Beaumelle does “Mathematics. We have to come to the calculation” between the potential group thirds. Corn “I take care of Côte d’Ivoire. We will take stock after the matches of the day.. The French coach of the Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire should find his goalkeeper, Badra Ali Sangaré, author of a terrible blunder which caused, on Tuesday, the equalizer of Sierra Leone (2-2) at the last second.
Injured in action but available again, Sangaré “felt responsible. We surrounded him. I told him it happens to great players”, assured Beaumelle. He can redeem himself in a gala match.
To not miss any African news, subscribe to the newsletter of the World Africa from this link. Every Saturday at 6 a.m., find a week of news and debates covered by the editorial staff of the World Africa.