Amidst the fatal defeat of the Super Eagles by the Algerian side, the Algerian coach, Djamel Belmadi, has revealed that he instructed his players to starve Samuel Chukwueze of space, during their 2-1 win over Nigeria on Sunday.
Belmadi’s men will play Senegal in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations, after beating the Super Eagles in their semi-final fixture.
He has now admitted that part of their tactical plan, was to mark Chukwueze out of the game.
The Villarreal winger has grown in stature throughout the tournament and netted his first international goal in the previous round against South Africa.
“It was a tough game against tough opponents. We were good in the first half and my players shown great fight to respond after the penalty.
“We could have scored more but with players with the quality of Mahrez we had a chance with the freekick. And thank God we won.
“We planned to starve Chukwueze of space because we noticed he is very direct.
“We exploited their defenders’ lack of pace and we got our strikers and Sofiane Feghouli to press them as often as possible. I think we were able to execute the plan well,” Belmadi told the media afterwards.