While he is now focused on the next African Cup of Nations, Djamel Belmadi returned to the elimination at the gates of the World Cup in Qatar last year.
Djamel Belmadi wants to be cautious. While Algerian supporters dream of seeing the Fennecs win a new World Cup, their coach wants to be measured. “ Senegal is the reference today in Africa. It’s going to be difficult, but we want to put ourselves in difficulty for the next African Cup. I want to play a semi-final, a final at the next CAN, so that means this match against Senegal. We came out in the first round of the last CAN, so it would be daring to say that we are going to win the next African Cup. We will have objectives, we will keep them within the group, but know that the culture of winning obsesses me,” he told RMC at the After microphone, relocated this Sunday to Algeria.
And the former Marseillais is all the more cautious as he is still marked by failure during the World Cup play-off match. “The World Cup was our absolute goal, and it really shocked us not to make it. I could have left after this failure, and gone to the Gulf countries because that is the fashion at the moment. But I want to make the people of Algeria happy again. There was a period, people weren’t expecting us, we won a CAN, and that lasted for almost 3 years. Then there was a big failure, going out in the first round of the CAN when you are African champion, it’s a failure. And 2 months later, we experienced another big failure, for many reasons. Today we are expected everywhere, the teams know us,” he explained.
