For the first time in their history, Mauritania has won a game at the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON.
To make matters sweeter their first victory came against one of Africa’s traditional football powerhouses, Algeria. Incredibly the result sends Mauritania through to the next round and sends Algeria home without a win in what will be remembered as a catastrophic AFCON campaign.
Indeed, the most shocking result of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations Côte d’Ivoire 2023 was recorded by Mauritania after they beat Algeria at the Stade de la Paixin Bouake.
The odds were in favour of the Desert Foxes of Algeria to pick their first win in the CAF AFCON 2023 tournament but Mauritania had something else in mind. They came to the party, sending their North African opponents packing.
Yali Dellahi controlled a rebound to produce a great strike which deflected to put Mauritania a goal ahead in the first half.
After taking the lead in the 37th minute, Amir Abdou took control and defended his lead throughout the game.
Goalkeeper Babacar Niasse made magical saves to keep the Lions of Chinguetti in the game. The win is Mauritania’s first in the history of the Africa Nations Cup.
With three points in the bag, Mauritania is through to the knockout stage of the CAF AFCON 2023.
Algeria was dismal against Mauritania, lacking cohesion or any semblance of organisation, and on another day might have lost by more.
Much of the blame for that must go to their manager Djamel Belmadi. For him to move on from Riyad Mahrez and Nabil Bentaleb makes some sort of sense, but to do so in the middle of a tournament, before a decisive game? In fairness to him, he wasn’t stubborn, accepting his error and introducing Mahrez at half-time.
But the damage was done because by then Mauritania was in front and there was a touch of desperation about everything Algeria did such that now, after a second consecutive group-stage exit, Belmadi will do very well to keep his job.
The head coach of Algeria, Djamel Belmadi had this to say after the clash.
“The observation right here is that we have conceded a goal, we can come back here and look at the goals that we conceded. There are some things that I cannot explain; we haven’t been able to score even though we had good plans and tactics. “This is the mystery of football. If we do not create chances, if we are dominated by chances created by the opponent teams, if we miss a lot of opportunities, then we could say there is a sector that is not good but that was not the case in the matches we played, so these are things I can’t explain. “We are out of the AFCON for the second time and that’s football. That’s how it is. “We have not been able to score, and we have not been able to make the difference.
As I said in the beginning, we don’t have any small team in this AFCON and you can be punished anytime with a set piece or a penalty, so we are not able to finish our chances and create more.”
Amir Abdou, Mauritania coach was floating on cloud nine.
“It is extraordinary what we are feeling and what we are going through. I told my players to not leave anything out, to believe until the final whistle and we saw all the scenarios we had in those conversations and we had seen other teams and we have been able to win against this Algerian team.
“Individually and as a team, we showed a lot of determination for this qualification, so, we will start from here.
“It is a very difficult win. You find yourself in a country where you don’t know a lot of people where you had this result and people are going to hit you in the middle.
“The players had a historic game. I told them today that they need to write their names in the history books of Mauritanian football and they have done that.”
The win against Algeria is Mauritania’s first CAF AFCON win and a knockout stage qualification.
PLAYER RATINGS
Mauritania: Niasse 9, Keita 8, Dellahi 8, Ba 7, Diaw 7, Gassama 7, Koita 8, Odda 8, Thiam 8, Amar 7, Anne 7. Subs: Houbeib 7, Fofana 7, Camara 7, Kamara 7, Ba 6.
Algeria: Mandrea 6, Atal 7, Mandi 6, Tougai 5, Ait Nouri 6, Aouar 6, Zerrouki 5, Boudaoui 5, Amoura 5, Bounedjah 5, Ounas 5. Subs: Mahrez 6, Bentaleb 6, Belaili 5, Slimani 6, Van den Kerkhof 6.
