Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi wants his side to learn lessons from their frustrating opening draw against Angola when they face Burkina Faso at the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday.
The 2019 champions allowed Angola to score a second-half equaliser during a 1-1 draw on Monday in a disappointing start to the tournament, which means they are now without a win in their last four AFCON fixtures – having not win since lifting the trophy with victory over Senegal.
“It was not the result we expected,” Belmadi said. “We were expecting to have three points. We tried our best and didn’t want to lose the game so we did what we can do to get a point which was necessary.
“We were supposed to do better in the second half, but we can also talk about the moments we did well.
“We have identified our weakness as we didn’t defend very well for us to concede the penalty which was a big mistake. We are in a transitional period so we try for this team to work together and we have also learnt lessons from this game for our remaining games.
“We made some technical mistakes, but it’s not professional to start a tournament with the mindset of a loser so we will prepare for the match against Burkina Faso to put things right.”
Burkina Faso enjoyed an excellent start to the tournament with a 1-0 win over Mauritania on Tuesday courtesy of Bertrand Traore’s late penalty and they, are looking to win consecutive games for just a third time in their history and the first time since 2017.
