Petkovic admits: Great work awaits the Algerian national team – the new Algeria

Vladimir Petkovic, coach of the Algerian national football team, admitted that the “Greens” team is still far from the desired level.

Petkovic said, during Press conference He said after the end of the match yesterday evening, Tuesday, against Uganda: “Despite achieving qualification, I confirm that we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to reach the optimal competitive level. We will work on that in the next stage.”

andbeat The Algerian national team defeated its Ugandan counterpart, by two goals to one, yesterday evening, Tuesday, at the “Hussein Ait Ahmed” stadium in the city of Tizi Ouzou, for the tenth and final round of the African qualifiers for the 2026 Football World Cup.

The match seemed to be a formality for captain Riyad Mahrez and his teammates, given that the Algerian team had secured qualification in the last round when it defeated the Somali team (3-0) last Thursday, thus topping the seventh African qualifying group with a comfortable margin.

However, despite this fact, yesterday’s match witnessed intense enthusiasm and competition, as the national team strived hard to return to the result, after the visitors opened the scoring in the sixth minute, as a result of a mistake in the middle of the field by player Hisham Boudawi.

“The Greens” succeeded in their mission with difficulty thanks to the goals of striker Mohamed El-Amin Ammoura, thanks to two penalty kicks (D80 and D90+8).

Petkovic pointed out, in his press conference, saying: “We conceded a goal in the first minutes of the match, which somewhat confused our calculations, because we were not expecting that. This also explains the difficulty of our quick return to the result. During the break, we reorganized, and our efforts paid off in the second half.”

Petkovic thanks the Algerian sports fans

Petkovic continued: “I would like to extend my great thanks to the fans in attendance, who contributed greatly to turning the tide on the field. I also cannot fail to express my gratitude to our supporters who supported us in other stadiums before this match, as they in turn were a real support for us.”

The Swiss coach added: “The confrontation with Uganda was an opportunity to involve some new elements, and this is not a new thing for me. Every ready player is an element that can be relied upon, regardless of whether he is old or new in the squad.”

It is worth noting that this is the fifth time that Algeria has qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals. This came after the tournaments of Spain 1982, Mexico 1986, South Africa 2010, and Brazil 2014.