Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi has dismissed the favourites tag on his team as they challenge for honour at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Belmadi referenced the Desert Foxes’ failure in Cameroon two years ago after exiting 2021 AFCON at the group stage and their inability to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar for the low expectations in Ivory Coast.
Algeria have won the AFCON title twice in 1990 and 2019, with both triumphs coming on North African soil.
They will begin their campaign in Ivory Coast with a Group D fixture against Angola at Stade Bouake on Monday with the ambition of taking one game at a time.
“I know there are lot of big teams; because we went out in the first round in Cameroon, we can’t say we are the favourites for this competition, No,” Belmadi told CAF Online.
“We were not in the last World Cup, which was our main target since 2019. We put a lot of energy to qualify for this World Cup, actually, it was our first target. So we can’t say that we are the favourites, we can’t say we are going to win it, but we can say we’ve prepared ourselves to give our best and to perform in this competition and to go as far as possible.”
47-year-old Belmadi who led the Desert Foxes to success in 2019 AFCON, expressed disappointment with his team’s early exit from Cameroon in 2022 and he is looking to make Algerians happy in his third AFCON appearance as Algeria coach.
He said: “It’s a massive pride to represent my country and to lead this national team in those amazing competitions like the AFCON and at the same time, it is a huge responsibility because we are a country of football and we have a population that love football and especially the national team and we gave our people a lot of joy when we won the AFCON in 2019.
“We were disappointed in the last one because there were lot of expectations and we couldn’t satisfy them, we couldn’t satisfy ourselves first and we couldn’t satisfy them, so we feel we have to give back something in this AFCON.”
