Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi said that he is having difficulty explaining what happened with his youngsters in the African Nations Cup underway in Cameroon.
Belmadi spoke after Algeria lost 1-0 to Equatorial Guinea, a loss that pushed Algeria to the last place in the group with one point, before a decisive final match against Ivory Coast next Thursday.
The Algerian coach said, "This is not the result that we came for, we have to accept it while we are going through a difficult stage, after a long time with the fat cows, we are in the period of the lean cows."
He continued, "The ball did not want to enter despite our repeated attempts and our rush to attack. We faced a team that came to defend strictly and look for the goal through repeated attacks. They were lucky in that, with all due respect to Equatorial Guinea. We faced bad luck, but this is football."
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After Algeria scored one point from two games, Belmadi said, "It is clear that this is not what we planned for, there are not always convincing reasons in football, we can control the match amazingly and come out with zero points and zero goals, we can argue and explain for hours but the ball was not You want to get into the net."
"I am largely responsible for this defeat," he added, before turning to the Ivory Coast match, vowing to work on winning, qualifying for the next round, and continuing to defend the title won by the "Desert Warriors" in the previous edition.
"I believe in this group," Belmadi said. "We will have to score a goal against Ivory Coast because if we don't score it will be difficult. I believe in our abilities and if I don't die, there is hope."