The national football team is now fixed on opponents In the last stage of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (postponed until 2022), which will be held early next year in Cameroon. The draw put defending champion Algeria in a middle group along with Côte d’Ivoire, the other African juggernaut, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea.

The date is in less than five months, and the Greens will travel to Cameroon with the best intentions and the goal of defending their African crown, which was acquired in July 2019 on Egyptian soil.

Despite the importance of this goal, the top priority for the national coach remains the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for which the qualifiers will start in two weeks.

I have always said that our priority is the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. I am already preparing for my September matches against Djibouti and Burkina Faso. We will talk about the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations when the time comes.” Balmadi On national television after the CAN draw.

In this qualifier, Algeria will have Djibouti, Burkina Faso and Niger as opponents. It will kick off on September 2 in Blida against Djibouti before facing five days later, on the seventh, Stallions Burkina Faso in Marrakech (Morocco), and the Ouagadougou stadium has not been approved. The first team from the group will compete for one of five African tickets for the 2022 World Cup with the winner from another group facing each other, home and away.

The national coach has never hidden his ambition to qualify for the next World Cup and go as far as possible. “When we are done with the work, we have qualified, the goal will be to win it (…) We will now talk seriously, the goal will not be to participate, not to do all we can, but to give everything and believe in the impossible (…), The players don’t set any limits,” he said in January 2020 on Canal + Sport. His words were not mocked as he had already set and achieved an implausible goal, which had everyone astonished.

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defense position

After his appointment in August 219 at the helm of a moribund and failing national team, Belmadi announced that his first goal was to win the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled in Egypt in less than a year.

Tamouh caused an uproar in Algeria, with many analysts treating the coach as “ambitious”. On July 19, 2019, the team lifted the African Cup, which is only the second in its history and the first in three decades.

Of course, Djamel Belmadi did not explicitly say that he would go to win the World Cup in Qatar. He and his team will defend their position and try to go as far as possible in this competition. The EN team has not lost in 27 matches where it faced global competitors (Colombia, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Nigeria). Famous technicians, such as former Germany coach Joachim Loew, ranked her among the best in the world.

If the World Cup occupies his thoughts, it does not mean that Djamel Belmadi is not setting a goal for the next Africa Cup of Nations. “We will do everything in the hope that we will rise to the level of our stature and continue to make the Algerian people happy,” he said in his statement, which was broadcast on public television.

However, he knows that the task will not be easy and that his team will be waiting impatiently. “In high-level competitions it is always difficult to link titles. We have all seen what happened to France, the world champions, at Euro 2020 where they were knocked out in the Round of 16. The same is for Germany, who won the 2014 World Cup before withdrawing from the first round of the World Cup. 2018 in Russia, “

And above all, it doesn’t underestimate the importance of my Paul E. “It is a group that is obviously a big African, namely Ivory Coast. They are a very strong team that needs no introduction. We faced them in the quarter-finals of the 2019 African Cup of Nations and everyone watched the match. Of course, Algeria and Ivory Coast are the favorites of this group, ahead of Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea. But, you should know that there are no longer small teams in Africa. There is always a surprise. We must be prepared and vigilant.”

In addition to the quality of his opponents, Belmadi may face another problem next winter. The England national team is made up of players who play in the European Championships, and they will find it difficult to leave their clubs to spend nearly a month in Cameroon (from January 9 to February 6). After returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, they risk losing places in their clubs, which could affect performance on African soil.