Algeria coach happy with friendly win over Rwanda

by Graeme Jackson

Thursday Jan 11, 2018. 17:00

Algeria coach Rabah Madjer has expressed his satisfaction after seeing his locally-based team defeat their Rwandan counterparts 4-1 in a friendly on Wednesday.

The match at the El Menzah Olympic Stadium in Tunis saw the Fennec Foxes score through Farouk Chafai, Mohamed Amine Abid and El Habib Bouguelmouna, while Rwanda netted through Soter Kayumba.

The match served as a chance for the North Africans to expand their player base, while the East Africans used the game as a warm-up for their participation in the upcoming African Nations Championship in Morocco.

"I think it's a good start for local [nationla team] players. As you can see, they have put a lot of effort into dealing with a very well prepared opponent, particularly physically,” said Madjer after the match, as quoted by Le Buteur.

“Thank God, this is a promising start for this team. It's very good to win this match on the score of four goals to one. The players started well by dominating the clashes.

“We saw good things on the physical level and above all a lot of commitment from the players who were men in the field. Thus, winning this game by four goals to one is a very good result that will boost morale in the future, Inshallah.”

While the friendly helped Madjer identify possible candidates for the ‘full’ Algerian team, he emphasised that there is a lot of work still to be done if they are to bring the Fennec Foxes back up to the pinnacle of African football.

"However, we must recognise that there is still gaps in this selection. This broad success does not mean that we have a great team.

“There are players who will arrive and others who will leave. We are always looking for the profile of the player that interests us, whether here in Algeria or abroad.”

He added, “We made a good start against Nigeria [in the final 2018 World Cup qualifier in November], then today against Rwanda. We must not forget that we did not have much time to do our work.”