Jonathan WILSON
Cynical Algeria deserved their victory
The Final of the Africa Cup of Nations was a disgrace, a game settled by a freakish second-minute goal and then systematically spoiled by Algeria.
In a grim sense, that made it the perfect climax for the competition, bringing together two key themes of the previous month: that Algeria were the best side in Egypt, and that they suffered some weird insecurity that meant that whenever they felt under the slightest pressure they fell back to grappling, moaning and time-wasting.
The 1-0 scoreline was in general keeping with the competition as well. The 52 matches in this year’s finals yielded just 102 goals, an average of 1.96 per game – the lowest scoring AFCON since 2002.
Back then, atrocious pitches in Mali were blamed, but
