Champions, The Desert Foxes of Algeria on Monday at the Stade Bouake in Ivory Coast failed to shine at the opening match of Group D playing 1-1 draw with the Black Antelopes of Angola.
It was a night of pains for the Foxes and their fans and pop up wine for the Antelopes and their fans. The entire 19,740 fans present at the stadium celebrated Angolans who served the bitter NO GREE FOR ANY TEAM AT AFCON for the North Africans.
Qatar based Baghdad Bounejah was fleet footed getting a pass from M. Belaili and scoring at 18th minute making Journalists think the Foxes would have the Antelopes for Dinner. Foul! The South African team of Angola refused the tag of small boy to face Imagine 117 ranked in the world flexing muscles with a team ranked 30 in the world and a team that is always there at the continental finals with routine podium finish.
The boldness paid off 68th minute when pressures were piled on the Algerian defence and a panicking defender kicked this Angolan attacker with an advantage to ram in a goal. He was promptly hacked and the Ref pointed to the penalty box.
Mabalulu whose real name is Agostinho Paciencia and plies his trade with Egypt’s Al-Ittihad kicked the ball 68th minute into the horizontal bar and the ball dropped beyond the goal line. A dramatic goal! The stadium roared. Another soccer giant forced on his knees. Will the Angolans win the match?
The Algerians tried the usual North African tricks, fall down and pressure the Ref for penalties but the Ref would not cooperate. The Angolans frustrated the Algerians with close tackling or man to man tackle reducing space and disallowing time to think and it became the slang, “Only the Devil can think straight in hell”.
Perhaps the compensation for Algeria is that former Manchester City Forward now of Al-Ahli of Saudi was named Man of the Match.
Algeria and Angola met twice. First was a world cup qualifier on 5th June 2005 and Angola won 2-1; second was an AFCON match on 19th January 2010 which ended goalless.
The Black Stable Antelopes of Angola ranked 117 never had a podium finish.
Angola’s last five matches are as follows: Played goalless with DRC on 17th October 2023 in a friendly match; played another goalless draw with Cape Verde on 17th November 2023 in a world cup match; played another goalless draw in another world cup match against lowly rated Mauritius on 22nd November 2023; on 6th of January 2024 it was again goalless against DRC in a friendly game and on 10th January 2024 Angola got a 3-0 victory over Bahrain in a friendly match. This shows that Angola is a very low scoring country in need of a lethal striker and supplying team.
Algeria ranked 30 in the world caged Teranga Lions of Senegal 3-1 in a world cup match on 17th November 2023; she overcame Mozambique 2-0 in a world cup game on 19th November 2023; the senior team tried their U23 team for size winning 2-1 on 31st December 2023; Togo was dazed 3-0 in a friendly on 6th January 2024 and on 9th January 2024 Burundi got a 4-0 bashing in a friendly.
Algeria making her 20th appearances at AFCON finals was champions twice. In 1980 in Lagos, Nigeria displaced Algeria 3-0; At Libya 1982 Zambia pushed Algeria to the 4th place 2-0; at Ivory Coast in 1984 Algeria scored three solid goals to grab the Bronze from Egypt; come Morocco 88 it was Bronze again after 4-3 penalty off 1-1 at full time; Algeria clipped the wings of the Super Eagles of Nigeria 1-0 to lift the trophy as she hosted in 1990; Nigeria revenged in 2010 also a lone goal to push Algeria to the 4th place in Angola; Algeria became champions again at Egypt 2019 beating Senegal by a lone goal.
On Tuesday 16th January a group D match between Burkina Faso and Mauritania will take place at Stade Bouake at 3pm; Tunisia will slug it out with Namibia at 6pm at Ahmoudu Coulibaly Stadium in group E and another Group E match between Mali and South Africa is at 9pm.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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