Ghezzal To Replace Mahrez During Zambia, Botswana Matches

The coach of Algeria’s national team, Djamel Belmadi, chose the Turkish Besiktas player, Rachid Ghezzal, to succeed the Greens’ captain during the matches against Zambia and Botswana, scheduled for March 25 and 29, in the AFCON 2022 qualifiers in Cameroon.

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola decided to deprive Algeria’s national team of the services of Mahrez in Zambia and Botswana games, due to the health protocol imposed on English clubs, following the spread of the new strain of Coronavirus in Britain.

Under the current health protocols to combat the Coronavirus, players who arrive in Britain from the “red list” countries, including Zambia and Botswana, are subject to quarantine in hotels for a period of 10 days. In addition, FIFA has given the clubs the right to refrain from allowing players to join the national teams during the international window this month, which includes matches in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers if they are among the “red list” countries.

Ghezzal imposed himself since his transfer to the Turkish team Besiktas after he succeeded in providing a good performance through decisive passes that contributed to taking the top of the local championship with two points ahead of runner-up Galatasaray, which attracted the national coach Djamel Belmadi to join him to Algeria’s team.

Ghezzal surpassed all attackers in the five major European leagues, except for Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane, as the Algerian made 11 assists, at a time when the Englishman was behind 12 goals for his club thanks to his charming touches.

Ghezzal ranks second in Europe alongside Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, and the veteran striker in the ranks of Bayern Munich, Thomas Muller, although he has participated in fewer matches, which are 19 matches compared to 22.

Ghezzal did not play with the “Greens” for more than two years, specifically since the loss against Benin, in the AFCON 2019, and he played 16 matches with the national team in which he scored one goal and gave two decisive passes.