Confederation of African Football (Giza)
3 December 2011
Algeria U-23 national team manager Ezz El Deen Ayet Goudy expressed his disappointment after he saw his team humiliated 4-1 by Nigeria in their last group match of the Orange CAF U-23 Championship.
Goudy said “I apologise to the Algerian fans that stood behind us. We failed them and couldn’t make it to London 2012 Olympic Games. I also apologise for the humiliating defeat”.
Goudy said that his team should have taken the momentum from their good start. “We took the lead after the first half but we didn’t make use of that. Nigeria is a big team and once they scored the equaliser just 2 minutes into the second half they took over the game. They also capitalised on the sending off we suffered and that helped in that heavy score”, he added.
The Fenneces coach mentioned that he adopted an attacking style to score more goals and qualify to the semi final. “We attacked from the start as we played to win. I told the players to press on the Nigerians and that showed in our first goal. I asked them to score more, but we made mistakes and they punished us for that. I thank my players for what they did. We wanted to qualify and show our skills on the international stage and make our fans happy but unfortunately we couldn’t make it”, concluded Goudy.
Algeria bid the championship goodbye alongside Nigeria after Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 leaving both sides to qualify for the semi finals.
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