After winning 1-0 over Burkinabe on Sunday, Algeria moved into the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Algeria held on to win a bruising contest against a determined Burkinabe before Captain Mahrez converted from the spot midway through the opening period at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat.
Algeria, the African champions in 1990 and 2019, are the only team with six points after two Group E games and are unconcerned with a goal. Vladimir Petkovic’s side are considered to be one of the pre-tournament favorites.
On Thursday, Burkinabe and Sudan compete for the final spot in the group games, scoring three points each.
Algeria will play a last-16 tie in Rabat on January 6 after defeating both of them, meaning they are unavoidable even if they lose to Equatorial Guinea, who is currently pointless.
“We anticipated a very difficult match,” said the team. The most crucial outcome of our battle was a victory. The man of the match, Algeria’s Bayer Leverkusen forward Ibrahim Maza, said, “We are now qualified, and that was the main goal.”
He continued, “We knew that they would be very tough but we said we would have to fight against it, also be dirty, tackle very hard, and we did that well today,” referring to the encounter’s physical nature.
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When the Stallions and Algeria met at the final AFCON in the Ivory Coast, their group-stage elimination was forced to come from two goals down to draw level with them.
The penalty that decided the game was awarded when Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri was bundled over inside the box gave them all three points this time.
With his 23rd-minute kick, Mahrez was unaffected as he followed up his brace with a 3-3 victory over Sudan to increase his Cup of Nations tally to three goals.
The Algerian winger, who played for Manchester City and Leicester City at the time of his sixth AFCON, has now scored nine goals overall, which is an Algerian record.
In a stadium full of Algerian fans and 18, 522 spectators, the game was played amid a boisterous atmosphere.
Zinedine Zidane, a legend from France, was present to watch his son Luca score for the Desert Foxes while also watching their win over Sudan.
With a header from a corner, Pierre Landry Kabore’s Hearts striker headed in the direction of Burkinabe before Mahrez scored Mohamed Amoura for a shot that goalkeeper Herve Koffi saved in stoppage time.
As Burkinabe attempted to find an equalizer but were unsuccessful, Maza twice failed to convert good chances in the second half, while Georgi Minoungou fired just over the halfway mark.
Source: Channels TV
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