Bouaké – The coach of the national men's football team, Pedro Gonçalves, said on Monday in Côte d`Ivoire that he was impressed by the mentality of the national team players in the one-onel draw encounter, when they were losing in the first 45 minutes, in the first round of group D match for AFCON`2023, which is taking place in that west african country.
Speaking at a press conference after the match at the Peace Stadium, the Portuguese coach said he expects the same attitude from his players throughout this 34th edition of the African Championship.
Pedro Gonçalves also spoke with satisfaction about the performance of the team, who were able to recover from a one-goal deficit to take a point against the mighty Algeria.
He referred to his team's endeavour in the second half, after a poor first, saying that "This team started slowly, but we managed to find some spaces and we got back into the game in the second half, where the team did better," he said.
Pedro Gonçalves also emphasised that the job is not done yet, noting that the team has shown that they are mentally on top of their game, and reiterated that they will continue to work on this in the coming matches.
For the second round Angola will face Mauritania on Saturday 20 January.
Meanwhile, Algerian coach Djamel Belmadi called the 1-1 draw a frustrating result, because according to him the team did not make any dangerous moves during the game, in addition to some actions
To him, it was not the result they were hoping for, adding that he acknowledges that Angola were very offensive in the game´s second half, considering that their counter-attacks were ideal, but without success.
Djamel Belmadi regretted having said that the equaliser was a punishment for the lack of goals, due to the lack of effectiveness of his strikers.
The game's goals came from Bounedj in the 18th minute for Algeria and Mabululu in the 68th minute for Angola.
MC/MRA/jmc
