Algeria coach Madjid Bougherra has highlighted his players yielding to his instructions as crucial to their 1-0 win over Ethiopia which sealed their spot in quarter-finals of the 2022 African Nations Championship.
The tournament defeated Libya 1-0 in their Group A opener and have become the first team to progress to the knockout round.
Despite the feat, Bougherra has his sights on the final Group game against Mozambique.
“I want to congratulate and salute our players after the victory over Ethiopia. The players respected all the instructions,” Bougherra said on the CAF website.
“We had some opportunities that we did not seize and we found difficulties in the second half especially since Ethiopia were also strong but eventually we won.
“We are currently ranked first in the group and we must prepare for the next match.”
Bougherra went on to assert his tactical setup will be crucial to their progress in the tournament.
“We played with an offensive system that puts pressure on the opponent. We must follow such tactical plans to go as far as possible in the tournament,” he stated.
“During this match in the first half, we were better on the left side than on the right side which reflects something we worked on in our preparations before the tournament while in Tunisia.
“We must work more and more. Our players were focused and optimistic, especially the duo of [Houssem Eddine] Mrezigue and [Zakaria] Draoui who recovered several balls in the game.”
Algeria’s progress to the quarter-finals will make it the second time they have done so at CHAN, with their only other participation in 2011 taking them all the way to finishing fourth.
