The lanterns of the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will turn off on Friday, with the sickeningly sweet clash between Algeria and Senegal.
This unprecedented final will pit the most prolific attack against the meanest defence in the competition.
The Fennecs will try to secure a second star while the Lions will aim for the Holy Grail of Afrcan football for the first time.
Djamel Belmadi’s Algeria so far have a perfect record in the competition: five wins, one draw (1-1, 4-3 AET in the quarter-final against Cote d’Ivoire), twelve goals scored and two conceded in six games.
This high-flying performance allowed the Fennecs to reach the final of Africa’s elite football tournament again after 29 years.
Aliou Cissé, for his part, is leading his country in an AFCON final 17 years after the one lost to Cameroon (0-0, 3-2 AET).
Before this amazing run, the native of Ziguinchor (480 km south of Dakar) qualified Senegal for the 2018 World Cup, 16 years after the great epic in South Korea and Japan.
But this dream final will be a different kettle of fish altogether.
“Algeria has been cruising through the competition. This team beat Senegal in the group stage (0-1). The Lions of Senegal must learn from this defeat. They need a new mindset to win this final” former Senegal international Cheikh Sidy Ba said.
This grand finale is a consecration for coaches Cissé and Belmadi.
In Africa, local technicians have long been relegated to the background in favour of foreign coaches dubbed football’s “white wizards.”
This situation is gradually changing.
At the Egypt 2019 AFCON, eleven of the twenty-four national teams were led by African coaches.
Better yet, two of them, Aliou Cissé and Djamel Belmadi will be competing for the biggest prize in the African game.
This had not happened since the AFCON 1998 in Burkina Faso.
Exactly 21 years ago, Mahmoud Al-Gohary and Matsilela Ephraim Sono, known as Jomo Sono, respectively coaches of Egypt and South Africa competed in the final.
The Pharaohs ran out 2-nil winners.
Fratricidal duel for a crown
Belmadi and Cissé have proven that there is still a need for African expertise.
These two technicians grew up together in Champigny-sur-Marne (Île-de-France, Paris).
While the Fennecs strategist was born there, the Lions coach arrived in the French capital at the age of nine.
They were born the same year (1976) one day apart: March 24 for Cissé and 25 for Belmadi.
Retired from football in 2009, Cissé began his coaching career in 2012 with the Senegalese Olympic team as assistant to Abdou Karim Séga Diouf.
The following year, he won bronze with the national under-20 team at the Jeux de la Francophonie in Nice, France.
After the AFCON 2015 fiasco, the Senegalese Football Federation sacked Frenchman Alain Giresse and entrusted the national team to the former captain of the 2002 golden generation.
Since then, the dreadlocked coach has continued to write his legendary status with 44 matches in all competitions, winning 28, drawing 11 and losing just five.
In ten Africa Cup of Nations matches (four in 2017 and six in 2019), Aliou Cissé has won seven times, conceded two draws and lost once.
The Lions found the back of the net fourteen times, conceded three goals with a record of eight clean sheets – a real fortress!
Trained at Paris Saint-Germain, Djamel Belmadi has defended the colours of Valenciennes, Celta Vigo and Manchester City, among others.
The former attacking midfielder, who became coach in 2010, has already secured several trophies under his belt.
The former Algerian international (20 caps, 5 goals) has won nine trophies, including four Qatari championship titles.
Belmadi has also proved his worth with the Qatari team, with which he won a Gulf Cup and a West Asian Championship.
These convincing results persuaded the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) of the talent of the former Fennecs’ number 10.
He was finally appointed national coach last July and this was the beginning of the metamorphosis.
A new look for Algeria
What a mesmerizing squad Djamel Belmadi has shaped! Algeria has a fearsome attack with an average of two goals per game in this tournament.
Beyond statistics, it is the style of play that commands respect.
The former Olympique de Marseille player’s charges are distinguished by their ultra-aggressive stye of play, which combines tactical intelligence, fighting spirit and dexterity.
“Anyone who does not give himself fully to the national team will not be called up, regardless of his status and the club in which he plays,” Belmadi warned in August 2018.
The Fennecs coach even dismissed midfielder Haris Belkebla from the squad a few days before the tournament began, after the player flashed his buttocks in a video broadcast live on social media platform Twitch.
The Belmadi method was soon successful.
In the cages, Raïs M’Bolhi shows that he has beautiful remains. Aïssa Mandi is inflexible in defence. In the middle of the park, the experienced Adlène Guedioura, well assisted by the young Ismaël Bennacer, dictates play.
And the Belaïli-Bounedjah-Mahrez trio turn the screws in the big game in attack to dynamite oppositions’ defences.
Captain Riyad Mahrez, who scored three goals in this AFCON, has risen to a whole new level.
Against Nigeria, he scored brilliantly from a free kick from the edge of the box to earn a spot in the final.
Algeria can also boast of a squad depth with clinically effective substitutes such as Adam Ounas (3 goals) and Islam Slimani (1 goal).
“Algeria has a complete team in every sense. Fennecs are very technical and mobile. The best strategy for Senegal is the one that will prevent them from playing their football. We’ll have to be at the top of our game. We play a final to win,” former Jaraaf Dakar player Cheikh Sidy Ba said.
If there is an African team that Senegal has not been able to beat for several years, it is Algeria.
The two countries have met 22 times: 13 wins for the Fennecs, 4 for the Lions and 5 draws.
On 27 June, in the second Group C match, Algeria surprised Senegal with a goal from deft dribbler Youcef Belaïli early in the second half.
In this confrontation, the Fennecs meticulously applied Belmadi’s philosophy that there is never “success without sacrifice and solidarity.”
However, Ba, quarter-finalists of the AFCON 2000 (defeat 2-1 against Nigeria), has detected some weaknesses in the Algerian side.
“The right and the backs are not up to the level of the team. If we use the corridors properly, we’ll make it difficult for the Fennecs,” he noted.
Having being crushed by Nigeria (3-0) at the Africa Cup of Nations final in 1980, Algeria redeemed itself ten years later at home.
To reach the final, the host country dominated Senegal (2-1) in the semis.
On that day, in a hostile stadium, the Lions, making their first ever semifinal appearance in the AFCON conceded the opening goal but managed to equalize before the Fennecs scored a decisive goal to make the final.
According to former midfielder Lamine Sagna, Algerian star Rabah Madjer told the late Jules François Bocandé: “You want to beat us? Did you see the stadium? If you beat us, no one will leave the stadium alive. We’ll be killed.”
This time, there will indeed be a balanced battle at the Cairo International Stadium between Senegal and Algeria.
For either side, being crowned continental champions would be exceptional.
ID/te/lb/as/APA