MAURITANIA served up another shock result at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals to dump 2019 winners Algeria out of the tournament with a 1-0 victory and seal a historic place in the last-16 at the Stade de la Paix.
Mauritania had never led in any of their previous eight matches at the continental finals, let alone won a game, but a first-half goal from Yali Dellahi was enough to send Algeria packing in a second successive embarrassing early exit for coach Djamel Belmadi’s side after a similar failure in 2021.
Angola took top spot in Group D with seven points from three games followed by Burkina Faso (four), who they beat 2-0. Mauritania (three) will be among the four best third-placed sides and earn a knockout spot. Algeria end fourth (two).
Algeria looks a shadow of the side that lifted the trophy in Egypt in 2019. They dropped captain Riyad Mahrez to the bench against Mauritania but brought him on at halftime in a desperate bid to reverse their fortunes which proved fruitless in the end.
