Algeria booked their place in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations as a first-half penalty from captain Riyad Mahrez sealed a 1-0 victory over Burkina Faso on Sunday.
Mahrez converted from the spot midway through the opening half at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat, before Algeria dug in to win a bruising contest against a determined Burkina Faso side.
The two-time African champions, winners in 1990 and 2019, have taken a maximum six points from their first two Group E matches and are yet to concede a goal, underlining their status as one of the pre-tournament favourites under coach Vladimir Petkovic.
Burkina Faso and Sudan are level on three points and meet in the final round of group games on Wednesday. Having beaten both, Algeria are guaranteed to finish top of the group regardless of the result of their final match against pointless Equatorial Guinea, and will therefore play a last-16 tie in Rabat on January 6.
“We were expecting a very tough match,” said man-of-the-match Ibrahim Maza. “We fought very hard and the most important thing is that we won. Now we are qualified, that was the main goal.”
“We knew they would be physical and that we would have to fight and tackle hard, and we did that well today,” added the Bayer Leverkusen forward.
Algeria were keen to avoid a repeat of their previous AFCON meeting with Burkina Faso, when they squandered a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at the 2023 tournament in Ivory Coast, a result that contributed to their group-stage exit.
This time, they claimed all three points thanks to a penalty awarded after Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri was bundled over in the box. Mahrez made no mistake with the 23rd-minute spot-kick, following up his brace in the opening 3-0 win over Sudan to take his tally at this tournament to three goals.
Appearing at his sixth AFCON, the former Leicester City and Manchester City winger now has nine goals at the finals, an Algerian record.
The match was played in a boisterous atmosphere before a crowd of 18,522, largely made up of Algerian supporters. France legend Zinedine Zidane was among those in attendance, watching his son Luca feature in goal for the Desert Foxes, as he had done against Sudan.
Burkina Faso went close to equalising when Hearts striker Pierre Landry Kabore headed narrowly wide from a corner, while Mahrez set up Mohamed Amoura at the other end only for goalkeeper Herve Koffi to save during first-half stoppage time.
In the second half, Maza twice missed clear chances to extend Algeria’s lead, and substitute Georgi Minoungou fired just over late on as Burkina Faso pressed in vain for an equaliser.
AFP
