Belmadi happy with Foxes’ newcomers

Algerian head coach Djamel Belmadi

Saturday Jun 05, 2021. 15:00

Algeria national team coach Djamel Belmadi has expressed his happiness at seeing inexperienced players step up to help the Fennec Foxes convincingly defeat Mauritania.

Algeria crushed their opponents 4-1 in Blida in a friendly on Thursday night, with goals from Sofiane Feghouli (two), Adam Ounas and Baghdad Bounedjah.

The North Africans fielded several newcomers at international level in their starting XI, including Abdelkader Bedrane, Ahmed Touba (who made his debut) and Farid Boulaya.

“We warned the players enough. Mauritania is not an easy team to play. They have qualified during the last two African Cups [AFCONs, 2019 and 2021],” Belmadi is quoted by DZFoot.

“There is quality in them. We knew they were going to leave us little space with a lot of pressure on the ball carrier.”

The Fennec Foxes coach added: “[We won] with a reorganised team and players who have played their first selections and others who have not played for a very long time.

“We could see that we have worked well since the start of the internship. We were not in danger except for a goal we gave them. I am very happy with the performance of the players, especially the new ones.”

Algeria will next face Mali at home on Sunday 6 June, before rounding out their current set of friendlies with a match away to Tunisia on Friday 11 June.

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