Mauritania have recorded by far themostshocking result of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Côte d'Ivoire 2023 after beating Algeria at the Stade de laPaixin Bouake.

All the odds favored Algeria to pick their first win in the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Côted'lvoire2023 but Mauritania came to the party, sending their North African opponents packing.

YaliDellahicontrolled a rebound to produce a great strike which deflected to put Mauritaniaahead.

After taking the lead in the 37th minute, Amir Abdou managed situations and defended his lead throughout the game.

GoalkeeperBabacarNiassemade heroic saves to keep the Lions ofChinguettiin the game.The win is Mauritanias first in the history of the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON.

With three points, Mauritaniaarethrough to the knockout stage of the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON.

DjamelBelmadi - Algeria coach

The observation right here is that we have conceded a goal, we can come back here and look at the goals thatweconceded.There are somethings that I cannot explain;we havent been able to score even though we had good plan and tactics.This is the mystery of football. If we do not create chances, if we were dominated by chances created by the opponent teams, if we missed a lot opportunities, then we could say there is a sector that is not good but that was not the case in the matches we played, so these are things I cant explain.We are out of the AFCON for the second time and thats football. Thatshow it is.We have not been able to score,andwe have not been able to make the difference.

As I said in the beginning, we dont have any small team in this AFCON and you can be punished anytime with a set piece or a penalty, so we are not able to finish our chances and create more.

Amir Abdou - Mauritania coach

It is extraordinary what we are feeling and what we are going through.I told my players to not leave anything out, to believe until the final whistle and we saw all the scenarios we had in those conversations and we had seen other teams and we have been able to win against this Algerian team.

Individually and as a team, we showed lot ofdetermination for this qualification, so,we will start from here.

It is a very difficult win. You find yourself in a country where you dont know a lot of people where you had this result and people are going to hit you in the middle.

The players had a historic game.I told them today that they need to write their names in the history books of Mauritanian football and they have done that.

Statistics

The win against Algeria, is Mauritanias first TotalEnergies CAF AFCON win andaknockoutstagequalification. (CAFonline)