Algeria blame fatigue for Mali defeat at AWCON

Geoffrey Mwamburi in Accra, Ghana

The Algeria women’s football team head coach Fertoul Radia blamed fatigue for their 3-2 defeat to Mali that effectively meant they crashed out of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations without managing to win a single point.

Algeria endured a five-hour travel from the Ghanaian capital Accra to Cape Coast on matchday and went on to lose as Mali secured second place in Pool A and seal a semifinal date with South Africa who topped Pool B.

Radia said she was appointed to lead the women team in August thus had only September to work on their preparations. Despite the early exit of the tournament, she insisted the future is bright for her ladies

“I congratulate Mali for the victory. We fought well but our morale was a bit low before the kick off because we had no time to settle down because after arriving in Cape Coast from Accra.

“Eighteen of my girls are aged 20 and 21 years while just two of them had experienced this stage before meaning our future is great,” Radia said.

Her counterpart Saloum Hussein of Mali said she was contented to finish second behind Cameroon and urged the squad to push for a place in the the 2019 World Cup set to be staged in France in 2019.