Algeria Win 2019 AFCON On Pharaoh’s Land
Algeria have emerged Champions of the 2019 African Cup of Nations competition and would not care much that the win was an ugly spectacle to say the least.
This was not a performance to remember them by but they would take solace in the fact that they have been the best team in the tournament up until now, firing on all cylinders and conceding only one goal.
They held off a frustrated Senegal side barely creating another attempt or forcing an attack.
It was a colossal riding of luck and they will be glad that the tides swung in their favour. Algeria coach, Djamel Belmadi, arguably happiest of all can now celebrate with his players after defeating his childhood friend and coach of Senegal national team, Aliou Cisse who must wait to guide his team to winning their first title.
It was common belief during the build-up that the match would be a clash of the best legs and an extremely entertaining counter but the game fell many miles short of expectations.
In fact, the only goal of the encounter was a heavily deflected shot from Algeria’s Baghdad Bounedjah.
That said, credit should be given to Bounedjah who took the initiative to try out a shot from twenty yards with the shot coming off Sane before hitting the underneath bar and beyond a static Gomis, sensing the crowd into wild derilious celebrations.
With defensive rock, Kalidou Koulibaly missing the game through suspension, Sane had come in for the Napoli star only to let the team down with that heavy deflection.
However Senegal would have only themselves to blame. They did get their own chances but failed to make anything of it.
They were also left scratching their heads when a supposed penalty was ruled out by a VAR review.
Algeria have been crowned champions of Africa and shown themselves to be by far better than the rest teams on the continent.
