To be honest I personally wanted Algeria to beat the world record of longest unbeaten run in football by a national team held by Italy.
I wanted an African team to claim that record and since Algeria were on that path I supported them.
The African champions were defeated by Equatorial Guinea on Sunday as Esteban Ferjnandez scored a 70th minute goal and with 20 minutes remaining the North Africans attacked and attacked but would never find the equalizer.
The aim for Djamel Belmadi’s team was to win their first match at the 2021 AFCON after the draw against Sierra Leone but in the course of the match – after the Fernandez goal in the 70th minute – the Algerians wanted to settle for at least a draw for two main reasons.
Firstly to increase their chances of qualifying from the group and secondly to keep their unbeaten run and extend it to 36 games.
But that was never going to happen as Equatorial Guinea produced a big performance to shock the star-studded Algeria national team.
Despite this defeat this Algeria team deserves respect. They won the last edition of the AFCON and created the created the longest ever unbeaten run by any African national team. That still stands as a record.
