Algeria secured their place in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations after a Riyad Mahrez penalty gave them a 1-0 victory over Burkina Faso on Sunday.
Captain Mahrez converted from the spot midway through the first half at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat and Algeria then held on to win a bruising contest against a determined Burkina outfit.
Algeria, African champions in 1990 and in 2019, have the maximum six points after two games in Group E and are yet to concede a goal, with Vladimir Petkovic’s side living up to their billing as one of the pre-tournament favourites.
Burkina Faso and Sudan come next on three points each and play each other in the final round of group games on Wednesday.
Having beaten both of them, Algeria are guaranteed to finish first even if they lose their final outing against currently pointless Equatorial Guinea — they will therefore play a last-16 tie in Rabat on January 6.
“We were expecting a very tough match. We fought very hard and the most important thing is that we won the game. Now we are qualified and that was the main goal,” said Algeria’s Bayer Leverkusen forward Ibrahim Maza, the man of the match.
“We knew before 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,” he added of the physical nature of the encounter.
Algeria had to come from two goals down to draw 2-2 with the Stallions when the teams met at the last AFCON in the Ivory Coast, a result which contributed to their group-stage elimination.
This time, they claimed all three points, with the penalty that decided the game awarded when Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri was bundled over inside the box.
Mahrez made no mistake with his 23rd-minute kick as he followed his brace in the opening 3-0 defeat of Sudan to take his tally at this Cup of Nations to three goals.
The former Leicester City and Manchester City winger, appearing at his sixth AFCON, now has nine goals at the tournament, an Algerian record.
The game was played out amid a boisterous atmosphere in a stadium packed with Algerian fans in a crowd of 18,522.
France legend Zinedine Zidane was among those present to watch his son Luca play in goal for the Desert Foxes — he also attended the win over Sudan.
Pierre Landry Kabore, the Hearts striker, came close to equalising for Burkina Faso with a header from a corner, before Mahrez teed up Mohamed Amoura for a shot that was saved by goalkeeper Herve Koffi at the end of an Algerian breakaway in first-half stoppage time.
Maza twice failed to convert good opportunities in the second half while substitute Georgi Minoungou fired just over late on as Burkina Faso pushed unsuccessfully for an equaliser.
AFP