Football/ Preparing for the CAN: Algeria-Cape Verde (5-1)

Algeria inflicted a heavy 5-1 defeat on Cape Verde in a friendly at the Stade Chahid Hamlaoui in Constantine on Thursday evening, with Houssem Aouar, who scored twice, Amine Amoura, who opened the scoring, and defender Mohamed Amine Tougai, who came on as a late substitute, all reacting after the game.

There probably won’t be many more opportunities to risk and try for several months. In November, the National Team will begin qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. In January, it will play in the 2023 African Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire. All in all, these are pivotal periods in which winning is likely to be the only objective.

So, when it was announced that the Stade du Chahid Hamlaoui in Constantine would witness a friendly between Algeria and Cape Verde, people were expecting to see a typical eleven, as Djamel Belmadi himself admitted when he announced that the era of trials was over.

Unfortunately for the Greens coach, the numerous absences meant that he had to do without a number of first-choice players, notably Rayan Aït Nouri and Ismaël Bennacer. As a result, the starting eleven was very attacking, in a 4-2-4 formation. The aim was clear: to get back to winning ways and please the fans.

Algeria had not scored three goals since January 2022 and their pre-CAN friendly against Ghana. The Algerian national team were therefore greedy and did not hesitate to punish their opponents, who are renowned for the quality of their defence.

In the 39th minute, Youcef Atal sent Houssem Aouar perfectly through on goal, and he made no mistake in lobbing the keeper to score his first international goal (2-0).

Pascal Amstrong