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The fans didn’t stop singing and cheering, with the home side enjoying most of the support in the €280 million stadium.
No fewer than 40,000 fans were at the Nelson Mandela Stadium as the 2022 African Nations Championship, CHAN, kicked off in Algeria.
The new stadium, which was opened to the public on January 7 in Algiers, was packed as it hosted the opening ceremony and the first game of the tournament on Friday night.
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Algeria’s Desert Foxes locked horns with North African neighbours Libya in the first match of the competition in Group A.
Algeria enjoyed full support from the packed stadium as they found a way to subdue the 2014 champions.
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Mahious the hero inspires Algeria
The home side Algeria got off to a winning start following a narrow victory against Libya on Friday.
Aymen Mahious was the hero of the day for the Foxes, netting the all-important goal as Algeria sealed a narrow 1-0 win.
Mahious’ goal came via a penalty in the second half, with the forward making no mistake from 12 yards.
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Lucky Algeria
On the balance of play, it’s fair to say that the home side deserved to take the first three points of the competition.
The Algerians dominated the encounter at the Nelson Mandela Stadium but barely looked like scoring after seven attempts, with just one of them finding the target.
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However, three minutes before the hour mark, the Desert Foxes and their fans, who sang all through the day, had something to cheer as the referee awarded them a penalty.
It was indeed a gift from Libya following a poor back pass from midfielder Aboulqassim Rajab to his goalkeeper, Maud Allafi.
Allafi tried to make the most out of the bad pass but ended up giving away a penalty following a poor tackle on Mahious, who was alert and pounced on Rajab’s mistake.
Mahious picked himself up and took the resultant penalty. He was calm and cold as he converted to give Algeria the win.
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Libya’s fight-back
Libya fought back after going behind, the goal seeming to wake them up as they played with more purpose and bite.
In the 75th minute, they almost snatched an equaliser but watched as a brilliant effort from captain Ali Ramadan Ali came off the post.
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The 2014 champions left it late to show their attacking bite but the home side held on to claim all three points and take charge of Group A.
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