By Samindra Kunti in Doha, Qatar
December 17 – North Africa’s domination of the FIFA Arab Cup will culminate on Saturday with either Tunisia or Algeria lifting the cup.
The Algerians overcame hosts Qatar in the semi-finals after an unprecedented and dramatic 19 minutes of injury time that saw both sides score. “It has been a long and arduous tournament,” said Bougherra, who leads the team instead of regular coach Djamel Belmadi.
“We’ve come a long way. The matches were far from easy but thanks to God we reached the final destination. The teams know each other very well. We can’t have any secrets. It’s great that two north African teams are in the final, it’s great to showcase our football.”
In the other semi-final, Tunisia edged Egypt thanks to an own goal from Carlos Queiroz’s team in injury time. However, the Tunisians have had to labour hard throughout the tournament, losing in the group phase to Syria and only just squeezing past Oman in the quarter-finals.
Even so, the tournament has had a distinct North African flavour, with three representatives in the last four and a Magreb final to wrap up the tournament that replaces the Confederations Cup, last hosted by Russia in 2017, as a dress rehearsal for Qatari organiaers for next year’s global finals. The competition kicked off on November 29 and after a 16-team group stage favourites Morocco crashed out in the last eight.
The hosts Qatar progressed to the semis after demolishing the United Arab Emirates 5-0, but had too little in the semi-finals to unsettle the 2019 African champions, who are in Qatar with a weakened squad. Clubs are not compelled to release their players for the tournament.
On the eve of the final, Gianni Infantino will feature in his own big match, playing at the Al Thumama Stadium for both the ‘Arab Legends’ and the ‘World Legends’. Yaya Toure, Iran’s Mehdi Mahdavikia and the brother of the Emir, Qatar’s head of state, will also be among the participants.
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