Algeria went seven matches without losing at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, conceded just twice across the entire tournament, and needed exactly one penalty shootout to survive a genuine scare along the way. Djamel Belmadi’s side ended a 29-year wait for a continental title with a campaign built on defensive discipline as much as individual quality, closing the tournament with the same 1-0 scoreline against the same opponent, Senegal, that they had also beaten in the group stage three weeks earlier.
A Perfect Group Stage
Algeria opened their campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Kenya on 23 June 2019, with Baghdad Bounedjah scoring from the penalty spot and Riyad Mahrez adding the second. They followed it four days later with a 1-0 win over Senegal, the tournament favourites, a result that immediately signalled this Algeria side had genuine title credentials rather than simply making up the numbers in Group C.
The group stage closed with a 3-0 win over Tanzania on 1 July, completing a perfect record: three wins from three, six goals scored, none conceded. Algeria topped Group C on nine points, a full three ahead of Senegal in second, and the manner of the wins mattered as much as the results themselves heading into the knockout rounds.
Read More: Who Are the Desert Foxes? Algeria’s National Football Team Explained covers the wider history of the national side that produced this run.
Cruising Through The Round Of 16
Algeria faced Guinea in the round of 16 on 7 July and won comfortably, 3-0, extending their unbeaten start to four matches without conceding a single goal in the knockout stage. It was the kind of result that suggested the tournament might turn into a straightforward procession for Belmadi’s side, right up until the quarterfinal changed that impression entirely.
The Only Scare Of The Tournament
Ivory Coast pushed Algeria to the brink in the quarterfinal on 11 July, a match that finished 1-1 after normal and extra time, forcing the tie to penalties. Algeria won the shootout 4-3 to advance to the semifinal, the only moment in the entire tournament where the result genuinely hung in the balance.
That shootout survival mattered enormously for how the rest of the tournament played out. Losing on penalties would have ended the run at the quarterfinal stage.
Read More: Algeria at AFCON: Two Titles and a Golden Generation places this specific tournament in the context of Algeria’s full AFCON history, including the years the team failed to get this far.
Mahrez’s Free Kick Sends Algeria To The Final
The semifinal against Nigeria on 14 July produced the tournament’s signature moment. William Troost-Ekong’s own goal put Algeria ahead in the 40th minute, but Nigeria drew level and pushed the match toward what looked like extra time until Riyad Mahrez stepped up in the fifth minute of stoppage time. His free kick curled beyond the goalkeeper to win the match 2-1, sending Algeria into the final and turning Mahrez into the story of the tournament’s closing stages.
Read More: Riyad Mahrez: From Le Havre Reserves to African Footballer of the Year covers that goal and the rest of Mahrez’s career in full.
A Final Decided In The Second Minute
The final against Senegal on 19 July 2019 in Cairo produced almost a mirror image of Algeria’s group stage win over the same opponent. Baghdad Bounedjah’s shot took a deflection off Senegal defender Salif Sane and looped over goalkeeper Alfred Gomis in the second minute, and Algeria spent the remaining 88 minutes defending a 1-0 lead they had built almost before either side had settled into the match. Goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi was named man of the match. It finished 1-0, exactly the same scoreline as their group stage meeting three weeks earlier.
Algeria’s title ended a 29-year wait since their only previous AFCON win in 1990, and the manner of it, seven matches unbeaten with only two goals conceded across the entire tournament, gave the achievement a completeness that few AFCON-winning campaigns manage.
The Defensive Record Behind The Numbers
Algeria kept clean sheets in five of their seven matches and conceded only to Nigeria in the semifinal and Ivory Coast in the quarterfinal. That is a notable record for a squad with attacking talent in Mahrez, Bounedjah and Yacine Brahimi, and it did as much to win the title as any single moment of individual brilliance.
The Individual Honours That Followed
Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo finished as the tournament’s top scorer with 5 goals despite his team falling short in the semifinal, while Algeria’s Ismael Bennacer was named the tournament’s best player for a midfield performance that underpinned the team’s defensive solidity match after match. Belmadi had taken charge of the national team in 2018 and won the title in his first major tournament in the job.
For the tournament Algeria continue to chase a third title in, the AFCON hub on TuSportNews tracks fixtures and standings as they are confirmed.
Why This Campaign Still Stands Apart
Seven matches, six wins, one draw settled on penalties, and just two goals conceded from start to finish. Algeria’s 2019 AFCON win holds up against almost any tournament run in the competition’s history for sheer defensive consistency, and it did so while still producing individual moments, Mahrez’s free kick chief among them, dramatic enough to be remembered on their own terms. Three decades after their first title, Algeria finally had a second, built by a golden generation that made winning look considerably more straightforward than the Ivory Coast quarterfinal briefly suggested it might be.