Africa-Press – Angola. Coach Pedro Gonçalves stated, on Monday night, that he was impressed with the mentality of the National Team, in the 1-1 draw, when they were losing in the opening 45 minutes, in a match on the 1st round, group D, of CAN`2023, which takes place in Côte d`Ivoire.
Speaking at a press conference, after the match, played at the Paz Stadium, the Portuguese coach said he expected the same attitude from his athletes throughout this 34th edition of the African football championship.
Pedro Gonçalves also spoke, with satisfaction, about the performance of the team that was able to recover from a one-goal deficit to score a point against the powerful Algeria.
He referred to his team’s effort in the second half, after a difficult first.
“This team started slowly, but we managed to find some spaces and returned to the game in the second half, where the team did better”, he said.
Still, the technician stated that the work is not done. The team showed that mentally it is up there, so we will continue to build on that in the next matches”, he reiterated.
Angola faces Mauritania on Saturday, January 20th, for the 2nd round.
Statements from the Algerian coach
With a grim expression on his face, in front of journalists, Djamel Belmadi stated that the draw (1-1) is a frustrating result, because during the game his team did not suffer any dangerous plays, in addition to some actions.
“This is not the result we expected”, he said, recognizing that Angola was very offensive in the second half, and counterattacks from the team were ideal, but without success.
For him, equality comes as a punishment for goals that were not achieved, due to the lack of effectiveness of his attackers.
The goals of the match were scored by Bounedj, in the 18th minute (Algeria), and by Mabululu (Angola), in the 68th minute, from a penalty, following a foul on himself.
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