LAlgeria head coach Djamel Belmadi says his side must be very prepared to overcome the Super Eagles in their AFCON 2019 semifinal clash on Sunday at the Cairo International Stadium, Completesports.com reports.
The Desert Foxes passed a difficult test against the Elephants of Cote d’lvoire in the quarterfinals on Thursday, but Belmadi believes the Super Eagles poses a bigger threat to his team.
“We played two days ago against Ivory Coast, but we have tried to recover in time for our semifinal game against Nigeria, “Belmadi told a news conference in Cairo on Saturday.
“It is a semifinal game and we must be well prepared much more than normal. Defensively, we have to be on top of our game against a difficult Nigerian side with good players. We will not divulge our tactical plans here.”
Belmadi also refutes claims that the Desert Foxes are the favourites to win the semifinal game and the competition.
“The semifinal is an equal stage for the four teams remaining in the competition. There are no favourites for now in the competition. Algeria, Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal all have equal chances of winning,” he added.
Algeria have won the Africa Cup of Nations only once – on home soil in 1990, when they defeated the Super Eagles then led by Dutchman Clemens Westerhof 1-0 in the final.
Belmadi says it’s challenge for current set of players to write their names too in the history book by winning it once again for Algeria.
“We won the AFCON title at home in 1990 and it has become more difficult to win it since then. We had great players who won it then. Before then, we did well at the World Cup. Those guys are legends of Algerian football. They have good history as well,” he said.
“The players here want to create their own history too. It will be great to do that, but we have to beat Nigeria first and then win the final.”
By Adeboye Amosu (pix: by Ganiyu Yusuf) In Cairo
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COMMENTS
Your eye go clear after 90mins tomorrow. Up eagles
Lolx
Super Eagles shd not wear that dark green Jersy tomorrow.
Coach Belmadi of Algeria, your best won’t be good enough to defeat the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
@Osaz, a football team does not have a single jersey design. There is always home jersey and away jersey. A team considered the home team in a match wear its home jersey while the other team automatically the away team wear its away jersey.
In the game Algeria vs Nigeria, Algeria is the home team while Nigeria is the away team and so will the jersey apply. The Super Eagles’ all green shirt and short is the away jersey.
Should the Super Eagles get to the final, they will still be the away team.
Whatever negative superstition some people believe about the all green jersey will not work against us. Amen.
When will they now wear it? People v bn saying they shouldn’t wear it before the south Africa match which they did. They are saying they shouldn’t wear it again tomorrow.so they should be wearing the green n white in all their matches? I don’t think the color of Jersey worn determines how a game would go…whether they wear the green and white or dark green, if the SE are determined and play well, they will win… I pray at the end of 90 mins SE would b d team progressing to the final…
They didn’t*
Nigeria 1 – 0 Algeria
Color of jersey doesn’t matter for me. Jersey no dey play ball. Na players dey play ball. This green jersey that people don’t like, in pre world cup friendlies, we beat Argentina 4-2 with it and we beat Poland at home 1-0 with it. In the world cup qualifiers, we beat Cameroun 4-0 in Uyo with it, we also beat Algeria 3-1 in Uyo with it. So, no matter what jersey our boys find themselves in, we shall overcome Algeria tomorrow. We respect them for the great team that they are, but we can and will beat them.
@Pompei, the victories you are referring to are not won by the All Green jersey we are talking about here. The Jersey we are talking of here is the one Created en-route the WORLD CUP as the away jersey for the FEATHERY GREEN AND WHITE JERSEY. During qualifiers, they have not produce that Jersey yet. My people As for me ooo, I will only pray God help us tomorrow cuz we will be wearing that BAD LUCK JERSEY that is already giving us bad luck even before the match kicks off by bringing Bad luck Referee GASSAMA to officiate the match.
The winner of this game will very likely be crowned Champions. Sorry, but no disrespect to Senegal or Tunisia. In this game, I go with Nalgeria, LOL.
Like your confidence! By God’s grace, nothing will stop the Super Eagles.
Good things happen when you shoot at goal. A seemingly harmless shot from Etebo has yielded Nigeria a penalty. VAR is our friend today. Our boy should be brave and take shots at goal more! Come on Eagles!!!!
A gallant performance by the Super Eagles. Not enough today. From the few minutes Onyekuru played, one wonders why we did not see more of him in this tournament. The whole team did well. We were undone by some freakish misfortune. Ekong’s own goal could have gone anywhere, but ended up in the net. Mahrez’s sublime freekick could have been prevented if the defenders cleared their lines better. And our goal came via an unlikely ally today, VAR. Well, the end has come. We thank Rohr and the team for a fine tournament. Now the NFF need to sit down and decide if Rohr is the man they want to take charge of the team going forward.