Petkovic wary as Algeria seek Afcon resurrection

COACH Vladimir Petkovic says he will not make promises while trying to resurrect the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) fortunes of Algeria after two disastrous campaigns.

- 

The Desert Foxes won the premier football competition in the continent a second time in 2019 when a second-minute Baghdad Bounedjah goal delivered a 1-0 final victory over Senegal in Cairo.

It was a team teeming with stars, led by then Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez, and the belief was that they would go on to claim more honours.

But those dreams were never realised. Instead, the Foxes were eliminated after the first round of the 2022 and 2024 Afcon’s in Cameroon and the Ivory Coast.

Not only did they fail to reach the knockout stages, they were humiliated, unable to win a match in either tournament. Algeria lost to Equatorial Guinea in Cameroon and to Mauritania, a team that had not won an Afcon match, in the Ivory Coast.

Coach Djamel Belmadi, mastermind behind the 2019 triumph, was jettisoned. In his place came Bosnia & Herzegovina-born Petkovic, who had spent seven years guiding Switzerland.