Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi defended his options in the squad that will face Cameroon twice this month in a qualifying playoff for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and stressed that the changes he made are aimed at qualifying for the Qatar finals.

Yesterday, Saturday, the coach announced a squad that witnessed many surprises, most notably the absence of striker Baghdad Bounedjah and wingers Saeed Ben Rahma and Adam and Nas.

Bounedjah, the top scorer of Al-Sadd, the Qatari league champion, was a key choice in the "Greens" team for a long time, but his level declined recently.

Benrahma also played 37 games with West Ham United in all competitions, scoring 8 goals, and also providing 6 assists.

Belmadi re-included the quartet, Ishak Belfodil, Adlan Guidoura, Rachid Ghazal and Hicham Boudaoui, after they were absent from the African Nations Cup in Cameroon.

He also summoned the two new faces Youssef Laoufi, defender of the Tunisian coastal star, and Mohamed Ben Yatto, the Qatari striker of Al Wakrah.

Today, he told reporters in an angry tone, "Every time you talk about the list, let's play the match and then talk. Each camp repeats the same words, we preserved the integrity of the team. There are changes in all the teams, but in the Algerian team there is always a problem."

#Blamadi, do you have a problem with this list??

pic.twitter.com/yykpKi4ctl

— Chkoubistan ツ stâtût dzツ (@chkoubistan_sta) March 20, 2022

And he continued, "Mahrez is present and Blaili is present, we must not change every time, perhaps we do not like stability, this matter has become very tiring. Ishaq Belfodil is able to offer a lot against Cameroon, whether back or forth. He was able to participate in the 2019 African Nations Cup in Egypt without injury. And I had an assistant who worked at Lyon, who praised him very much."

World Cup Qualifiers - Qatar 2022 🏆


List of 24 players for the double confrontation against Cameroon 🇨🇲 to calculate the deciding round of the World Cup qualifiers #LesVerts #teamdz #123vivalAlgérie #LesFennecs #WorldCupQatar2022✊🇩🇿 pic.twitter.com/UxrilJ921X

— Équipe d'Algérie de football (@LesVerts) March 19, 2022

Belmadi continued his defense of his technical options, saying, "There are players who have not been in the national team for a while and have returned again to the team. The options are for the national team's interest, and the future is still ahead of them."

The coach attacked the journalists in defense of his decision to expel Adam Zaqran, saying that this is a choice up to the coach, "Have you played football or have certificates in training in order to judge not to call Zarkan or another player, you have to be logical."

#Belmadi: We will fight to extract the Qatar visa pic.twitter.com/V2pBVSJR21

— ALGÉRIE PRESSE SERVICE |

Algerian News Agency (@APS_Algerie) March 20, 2022

Belmadi defended the choice of Ben Yatto, saying that "he deserves to be in the national team, and this was the fruits of his hard work. I congratulate him on joining the national team, and he has specifications we were looking for at some point."

Regarding Kaddoura's return after a long absence, Belmadi confirmed, "He is able to provide certain things, his presence in order to implement some specific details and instructions, but this does not mean that he will participate against Cameroon."

Algeria will be a guest of Cameroon on March 25, then host the second meeting 4 days later.

The winner qualifies for the World Cup finals in Qatar.

Belmadi's team will go to camp in Equatorial Guinea before traveling to Douala to face Cameroon.