Algeria defeated the Elephants of Ivory Coast 4-3 on penalties in Suez Thursday to set up an AFCON 2019 semifinal showdown with Nigeria, Completesports.com reports
The AFCON 2019 quarter-final match finished 1-1 after extra time with Sofiane Feghouli giving Algeria a 20th-minute lead that was cancelled by Jonathan Kodjia on 62 minutes.
In the shootout, Youcef Belaili struck the woodwork when he had a chance to clinch victory for Algeria, then Ivory Coast captain Serey Die hit the same post and his team were eliminated.
Forward Bounedjah missed a penalty in the second half of regular time and was visibly upset by his failure, fearing it would cost Algeria a first last-four place since 2010.
Algeria retained the team that started a last-16 demolition of Guinea, a result which confirmed the belief of many rival coaches that the Desert Foxes are the team to beat.
Ivory Coast coach Ibrahim Kamara changed two of the side that began an unimpressive 1-0 win over Mali in the first knockout round.
Midfielder Ibrahim Sangare and forward Max-Alain Gradel were selected to start in place of Jean-Philippe Gbamin and off-form Nicolas Pepe.
It was the eighth AFCON finals meeting between the two countries, with Ivory Coast holding a 3-2 lead and two matches drawn.
Ivory Coast were more impressive in the early exchanges before a modest crowd in a stadium overlooking the Suez canal, a major shipping link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
Algeria goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi finger-tipped a Gradel shot on to a post and Kodjia wasted a chance from close range after a cutback in 38 celsius (100 fahrenheit) heat.
Serge Kanon was the next Ivorian to squander an opportunity to put the two-time champions in front, stabbing the ball wide from inside the six-yard area.
Against the run of play, Algeria went ahead when Feghouli connected with a Ramy Bensebaini cross and his snapshot flew past Sylvain Gbohouo.
Algeria had a great chance to go further ahead early in the second half when Bounedjah was fouled by Gbohouo, but he blazed the penalty against the crossbar and over.
The Ivorian Elephants were playing much better than in previous matches and equalised just past the hour mark, ending a 422-minute run by Mbolhi without conceding a goal in Egypt.
Crystal Palace flier Wilfried Zaha created the goal with a surging run down the middle from the centre circle before passing to Kodjia, who scored with a shot from just inside the box.
Meanwhile, Tunisia will play Senegal in the other AFCON 2019 semifinal match after edging out the Barea of Madagascar in their quarterfinal clash also on Thursday.
Madagascar’ fairytale run in their AFCON finals debut came to a crushing end losing 3-0 to Allan Giress’s Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
Three second half goals by the Carthage Eagles proved enough to propel the North African side to the last four of the African football showpiece.
After an uneventful first half in which opportunities were few and far in coming, the Tunisian turned the heat on their opponents, whose inexperience now came glaringly to the fore.
It did not take long for the breakthrough to arrive seven minutes into the second period when Sassi found the Madagascar net after a brilliant buildup.
Eight minutes later, right on top of the hour mark, Msakni doubled the lead for the manager Alan Giress side when his right footed effort took a slight deflection off a defender before hitting the net.
The Indian Ocean Island nation now poured out, encamping in their opponents’ territory but lacked the cutting edge in the final third.
And they were further punished on the break when Sliti fired home the third and final goal during the stoppage time following a swift break.
27 Comments
Algeria is gonna be though but with determination n discipline we will succeed
The North is surprising me slightly o,but ofcourse they are the greatest threats to the West.
So no surprise overall.I’m also relieved that so far,we didn’t really play against any of our Western brethren.
So as expected it’s North vs West.
The West rules,the West wins. Chikena
“Almighty Madagascar trashed 3:0 by Giant Tunisia.
We have learnt our lesson anyway,
I just dont know why Rhor choose to learn during tournaments instead of learning wuth friendlies and training camps.
Good luck SE but I still believe the super Eagles needs a coach that believes we can win the next world cup and not just going to participate.
That is too much to believe for Rhor.
Hahahahaha…yes..that’s what Nigerians want. People who can bamboozle and deceive them with braggadocios ans sweet mouth.
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” I still believe the super Eagles needs a coach that believes we can win the next world cup and not just going to participate.”
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Pikin wey never crawl wan follow Usain bolt run…LMAO
You think countries just win world cups without planning, without structures, without programs, without management, administration and without the right player pools (at the highest levels)…..??? LMAO
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When we tell them to stop playing video games, they wont listen. lol
Funny!
Lmao
Its gonna be a tough match up between Nigeria and Algeria. Algeria can hurt you if you make mistakes. Algeria’s defence has not met real quality. Ivory coast should have taken that game with a little bit more quality in the midfield. They must regret playing North African teams.
As for Nigeria, defensive concentration and water tight defence please. Musa’s run should meet someone in the box please.
Exactly. A lot of through passes did not meet our players in the match against Bafana, which could have ended like 4-1. They should try to position properly especially in the opponent’s box.
Algeria is a familiar foes. I think we have what it takes to win, and that is determination, am not scared of them, Ivory coast would have been more difficult to us.
Playing any West African team is not always an easy task especially, Ghana, Ivory coast, Senegal, Mali and even Guinea Conakry.
God has destined our path, just like South Africa pave the way for us into the quarter final, Algeria have also done same for us to get to the semi final by edging Ivory coast.
I know the Algerians will come out tough, given the fact that we beat them during the W/C qualifier in Uyo and draw them in their backyard.
But, just like the game with Cameroon, we will beat Algeria if we play our A game, and with determination from the boys.
True Abah-fada by the time we race to one goal lead you know they will be on the back foot in this match we need our wingers to capitalize on any slip and play good counter. Better to meet Algeria than CIV because playing CIV or Ghana due to their robust way might have been more difficult for us.
Counting on our super midfield of Etebo and Ndidi to clip the fennecs of Algeria.
For me I prefer Nigeria to play algeria than ivory Coast it is going to be interesting football but by the end of the day Nigeria will win
I am predicting Nigeria vs senegal final which will be very explosive match
I agree with you.
Senegal should first win an organised Tunisia before planning to play final just like Nigeria too! The semi final will be DETERMINATION against ORGANISATION. Hopefully determination wins the day!
we have advantage concerning our match with algeria the match is going to be play on Sunday we play yesterday they play today and it took.them shootout to win after 120 min that that give us an edge over them,we have today tomorrow and next tomorrow to strain and strategize ,they have next tomorrow because of fatiq if we can prepared physically and tectonically we will win ,
Better, Algeria always find Nigeria difficult to play due to our style play and pace; if I may recall, the last time Algeria beat Nigeria was in 1990 when they hosted the competition.
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Hmmmmmm
My heart is heatbeating fast!
I can hear the sound of my heart beat like…. Rohr, rohr, rohr, rohr rohr rohr rohr rohr rohr rohr
Chai!
Algeria
These guys can punish any silly mistake without a sigh of pity.
Oh my heart is beating akpeyi akpeyi akpeyi akpeyi akpeyi akpeyi
Chai plz what does this mean omo9ja?
Mistake prone keeper?
For me it will take a miracle.
I prefer ivory coast to this sprint- footballers with so much technique and brain.
Mind you, this is not the same Algeria we beat in uyo ooo there seem to be a great rejuvenation in this squad chai.
My heart is besting fast oooooooo cries!
never mind we can play either algeria or ivory coast with short one, as far as iwobi, musa, eze, ndidi, etebo is there…. WEST AFRICA VS NORTH AFRICA ego red… well senegal and nigeria will shown african why they have majority of players in europe top5 leagues.
It will be tough games from now but the Nigerian team should know that this is an opportunity to ink their names in gold.So I urge concentration, a resolve to win and make us all proud.
It’s Nigeria vs Algeria…
I therefore urge fans of both divides
1. The progressives (ably led by my homies Ayphillydegreat/ Dr. Drey) & 2.The Analytics (ably led by Omo9ja fc/ ugo iwunze) and all other elderstatesmen of our fanworld to rally their troops in one United front for the total Support our Golden Super Eagles… under the meticulous leadership of the incumbent Gen.Deo to win and celebrate together
Cheers!!!
Lol….I dof my cap to the elder statemen.
God bless Rohr n the entire SE team. Now going forward, from close observation, I think we could hv scored at least 4 against South Africa n Cameroun. Musa yes, don’t have d perfect finish but maybe other players should by now start to work perfectly with that. Seems like 90% of Musas crosses ends up about same places.I suggest Rohr get videos n try get other players;strikers,wingers,left n right backs,to always HV that in mind,cos goals are begging from those beautiful Musa’s cutting runs. Well there are some areas players shouldn’t bother anyway, as they haven’t got wings to fly. Also, we need someone always,outside the box of our opponents everytime we send crosses into the box, to either meeting those drop balls from opponents defenders with good shots or stopping any counter attack from opponents. Lots of time, I observed these were lacking in our previous games.
Nigeria beat Algeria in the world cup qualifiers twice (second match we forgeries print to fielding Shehu Abdullahi who was suspended for that match).
Hornet, of we look at results before tournaments we should also remember South Africa took 4 points of us in the AFCON qualifiers.
One good thing is they were taken to extra time by Ivory Coast plus they have one day less recovery time than Nigeria before the semi finals.
One not so good thing is this Algerian team is much more confident, organised and better than the team we beat. It’ll be tough, but we should get the job done
(second match we forfeited) owing…
However, if we look…
Exactly @ BigD
I hope we dont keep harping on the fact that we collected 4 points out of 6 from Algeria in the WCQ. That was what SA did and became over confident. The WCQ is in the past…about 2 years now. 2 years is a long time for the fortunes of a team to turn around. This Algerian team isnt like the one we beat in Uyo…they had lots of off field issues in their team as at then. Now they have a new coach, a new FA and are more organized. So far they have been the most dangerous team in this tournament.
We have to take them VEeeerry seriously.
Did you know: Eagles are considered to be the main predator of the fennec fox? Lol names are not coincidence with hardwork we will prove this rightly!
blissful reminder for the moment
Really, is gonna be a great semifinals between west n north African.
I have strong faith SE will make it to finals and win the cup.
just like how MBA did it during our last outing.
We still have two great strikes untested,I see them as our joker come semi&finals.
Onyekuru And Osih…