“Algeria will beat Morocco,†says coach Benchikha
Algeria coach Abdelhak Benchikha said he was very satisfied by the national team’s performance in Wednesday’s match against Luxembourg. “The players showed a good performance though they faced big difficulties in training,†he told Echorouk.
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He also said he could not gather all the players only on the day of the match. “The team moved on Friday. The following day, we trained with eight players while Sunday’s séance was conducted in presence of 12 players. A total of 16 players trained on Monday. The number was complete on Tuesday.”
“The participation of Antar Yahia and Medjani with their clubs in championship last Monday put me in trouble. They joined the national team on Tuesday and I did not know about their physical state only after they had arrived. Yet, they played as principal players.”
Benchikha said football experts noticed the touch he added to the team in their way of playing.
I was not wrong when I called in new faces
Abdelhak Benchikha said he was not wrong in choosing new names. “Players like Ben Yamina, Meftah, Masloub, Mehdi Mustapha and Djabou showed that they deserve to be in the national team. They did not disappoint me. I will renew trust in them and the national team will be stronger in the future.”
Those who had reserves about current team are wrong
Coach said those who make a noise about the new list of Algeria’s players were wrong. “The match against Luxembour enabled me to discover new faces and give a convincing image of a national team without a large number of its essential pillars.”
Positions will be expensive after Matmour, Djebbour, Bouguerra, Halliche and Yebda come back and Ziani and Lahcen improve their performance.
Benchikha believes that Morocco will be easy to defeat in the next match. “I watched the match Morocco vs Central African Republic and I think it is modest and it is not worthy to make all that noise. With God willing, we will prepare well for the match and we will beat Morocco.”
He added that the match against Tunisia due to be held on February 9th will not take place in Tunis but in Algeria. “We will determine the match in the next few days.”