By Mark Ogagan
After two games, pre-tournament favourites Algeria are still chasing their first win at the ongoing TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
They take on Mauritania at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake on Tuesday (kick off 22h00) hoping to secure all three points and progress to the next round.
Mauritania have lost all two games and are without a win.
Head coach of Mauritania, Amir Abdou has insisted his side will put in everything to get their first historic win in the competition.
“We are going to have a very important game against the favorite of this group. It is going to be a very complicated game and we know we are going to play against a very good team. This is a team that has lot of high quality players. We are not here to distribute points, we are here to do our best and we will do everything possible to be at the right level.
“We do acknowledge the level of the opponent. What we are looking for as Mauritania is our first victory. Algeria is looking for the title, but we are looking for the victory.”
His Algerian counterpart, Djamel Belmadi knows their qualification depends on the game and they can’t afford to disappoint fans back home
“It’s a decisive match, let’s call a spade a spade. Against Burkina we only conceded a corner, they only arrived once in our area. The psychological motivation to come back does not surprise me, I know my team, we don’t want to leave the competition.
“We will have to reduce errors the errors we commit, these are adjustments that we must make. By reducing errors as much as possible it will swing to our side. We can become more prolific, more precise in front of goals,” he said.
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