The king tramples. Title-holder, Algeria was held in check by modest Sierra Leone (0-0), the first failure of a favorite at the African Cup of Nations (CAN), Tuesday in Douala.
If Senegal, another favorite, came out the day before with a last-second penalty against Zimbabwe (1-0), Algeria stammered its football to the end and signed the first 0-0 of the competition.
The only small consolation, the “Verts“are content to extend their unbeaten streak to 35 matches, two units from the record set by Italy (37). They can equal it if they do not lose against Equatorial Guinea or Côte d’Ivoire , their next opponents in Group E, who face each other on Wednesday (2:00 p.m.).
But the men of Djamel Belmadi, who did not show much of a contender for victory against “Leone Stars“impeccable discipline, will have to do much more not to lose against the Elephants.
The Greens and Blues of John Keister even dominated at first. In the first half, the only chances were Sierra Leonean, a pivot strike fromAlhadji Kamara (5th) and a powerful header fromUmaru Bangura (23e).
After the break, the Algerians came close to the worst when Alhadji believed to open the scoring, but he was offside (48th).
The African champions have finally reacted to a pass from their leader Riyad Mahrez for Yacine Brahimi, countered by the keeper Mohamed Kamara (52e).
The Algerians took the lead in the last half hour, but without success. Their greatest opportunity came with a strike from Sofiane Bendebka which was spinning towards the goal, diverted by Steven Caulker, the defender of Fenerbahçe (67th).
A Mahrez strike was deflected by Moh Kamara (81st), and Said Benrahma could have scored on his very first ball, but he scored his recovery (86th).
A last too soft head of Baghdad Bounedjah did not allow Algeria to redo the coup of Senegal the day before (90th + 4).
For its third participation in the CAN, Sierra Leone, qualified after a last heated match against Benin, polluted by a history of questionable positive tests, got away with a historic result.
Between 1994 and 1996, with his star at the time Mohamed Callon, it had obtained only one success, against Burkina Faso.
By falling into each other’s arms, the Sierra Leoneans celebrated this 0-0 against the African champion as a victory.
