Algeria 0 – Egypt 4: “The Greens glaringly penalized by partial refereeing”

The Algeria football squad lost Thursday 4-0 to Egypt in a semi-final match played in Benguela stadium against a backdrop of vehement expostulations about the glaring partiality towards the Egyptian side shown throughout this crucial game by the Benin referee Koffi Kodjia who did everything to get on the nerves of the Algerian players.  

• Algeria went close after just three minutes. Midfielder Mourad Megnhi hit a looping, lobbed free-kick from 35 yards – extraordinary if he meant it – that went just over the bar.
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• There was not much he might have gleaned – the rivalry and the three unjustified and much severe red cards given by the referee skewed this game entirely – but he will have noticed how easily Nabir Belhadj was beaten down the left.
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• Six minutes before half-time and the game reached its defining moment.
• Rafik Halliche, who had been booked earlier, misjudged the ball in the air and completely missed what should have been a straightforward clearance as Egypt tried to break from a corner.
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• Meteeb pounced on the loose ball and went sprinting towards goal. Halliche, in his desperation to make up for his mistake, went for a risky slide-tackle in the area and while he seemed to make some contact with the ball, he took the Egypt striker first.
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• The partial Benin referee, Codjia Koffi, immediately pointed to the penalty spot.
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• As Abdrabou Hosny placed the ball on the spot Koffi remembered that he wasn’t finished with unfortunate Halliche, striding over to show him his second yellow card.
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• If the Algerians were already raging with the blatant injustice of it all, Hosny made it worse by coming to a complete stop during his run up before tucking the ball into the bottom right-hand corner and squatting down to kiss the spot.
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• Algerian goal-keeper Faouzi Chaouchi, leading the protests at the glaring Egyptian cheating, was booked for his behaviour.
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• There was a flicker of movement when midfielder Hassan Yebda went close with a fine free kick that Essam El Hadary saved well but with just over 20 minutes left.
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• Mohamed Zidan, twisted and turned mischievously before curling his shot into the net.
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• There was more Algerian misery to come: two more red cards, two more goals. Belhadj capped his middling performance by crashing into El Mohamady, incurring a straight red from the heavy-handed Benin referee.
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• Substitute Mohamed Abdel Shafi then scored from a tight angle with nine minutes left.
• Then Algeria’s goalkeeper Chaouchi was shown a second yellow for involuntarily kicking another substitute, Mohamed Nagy, with just three minutes to go, before Nagy broke clear to squeeze the ball in.
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• All in all, the Greens’ setback in this skewed semi-final match of the Africa cup of nations was mostly due to the disastrous refereeing, according to most sports commentators.
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