Mahrez speaks on Tunisia, Mali

Riyad Mahrez of Algeria

Thursday Jun 10, 2021. 15:00

Algerian star Riyad Mahrez has revealed that he sees upcoming opponents Tunisia as a similar style of team to Spanish champions Atletico Madrid.

Algeria will face Tunisia at Stade Olympique de Rades tomorrow (Friday) night in their third and final friendly of this international window.

The Fennec Foxes have racked up home wins over Mauritania (4-1 last Thursday) and Mali (1-0 on Sunday) and will be looking to extend a 10-game unbeaten run which stretches back to a loss at the hands of Morocco in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) in October 2019.

Excluding the local-only CHAN team, Algeria have not lost any of their last 26 matches, though Tunisia are also looking strong after putting together an 11-game unbeaten run since going down at the hands of Nigeria in the third-place playoff at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

“The match against Tunisia will be a different match. It’s a tough team to play. Maybe a less playful team, but we know Tunisia. It’s like Atletico Madrid, you dominate and in the end you get screwed,” Mahrez told DZFoot.

The Manchester City winger scored the only goal against Mali and explained that the West Africans are also tough opponents.

“It was a complicated game. Mali are clearly not an easy team to play. We struggled in the first half, but the second half was better,” he said.

“Mali was good, we couldn’t get the ball out well. It was a good team and the coach was able to sort out the problems at half-time. We’re not always going to win by 3-0 or 4-0! It’s one of the tough matches in Africa.

“Mali is a team with a lot of personality, very well organised in the middle, where they hurt us. However, they lacked a little presence in front to materialise their opportunities. It’s a very good team.”