By our man in Rabat
RIYAD MAHREZ proved he is still the king of the desert as he inspired ALGERIA to a clinical 3-0 demolition of SUDAN in their AFCON opener.
On a night where the spotlight shone as brightly on the stands as the pitch, the 34-year-old former Manchester City wizard needed just 82 seconds to find the net, sending a sea of green and white crazy at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium.
The venue—a compact, 16,000-capacity cauldron in the heart of the Moroccan capital—was transformed into a “Little Algiers.”
Despite the rain, the atmosphere was electric, with the local faithful and traveling Fennecs creating a wall of noise that seemed to swallow the Sudanese side whole.
In a touch of true footballing royalty, the crowd was joined by none other than Zinedine Zidane.
The French legend was spotted in the VIP seats, watching with a proud father’s eye as his son, Luca Zidane, kept a clean sheet on his AFCON debut for the Desert Foxes.
Sudan’s hopes of a comeback were dealt a hammer blow five minutes before the break when Salaheldin Adil was sent marching for a second yellow card.
From then on, it was a training exercise for the 2019 champions.
Mahrez doubled the lead on the hour mark with a trademark clinical finish, before Bayer Leverkusen starlet Ibrahim Maza came off the bench to smash home a third in the 85th minute—sealing Algeria’s 100th ever AFCON goal.
After failing to win a single game in their last two tournaments, Algeria finally look like a side ready to conquer Africa again. With the Rabat crowd behind them, the Fennecs are once again the team to beat.
