Algeria, on the ropes: coach

World Cup qualifiers Algeria must win their next two Africa Cup of Nations matches to ensure qualification for the quarter-finals, coach Rabah Saadane has insisted.

Algeria, who are drawn in the same group as England in South Africa 2010, were never at the races in their shock 3-0 opening loss to Malawi here on Monday.

Saadane is now looking for a positive reaction, starting with Mali on Thursday, and again against hosts Angola next Monday to seal their last eight place.

Saadane put much of the blame on Algeria’s error strewn and lacklustre performance on the hot and humid mid-afternoon conditions in which they played Malawi – Thursday’s game is later, at 1700 local time (1600GMT), and he reckons that will be a major plus.

“We have to take revenge on ourselves after our defeat to Malawi,” he told media here.

“We’ll be starting at 1700, that’s a good thing for us, it’ll be less hot than at 1500 (the time of Monday”s kick-off).”

He added: “We’re aiming at taking six points from the games against Mali and Angola which should guarantee our path to the quarter-finals.

“We have to win both matches, it’s not going to be easy, but we’ll be doing our best.”

Mali international Frederic Kanoute, who was among the scorers in his side’s remarkable comeback from four goals down to snatch a draw against Angola last Sunday, says his team can’t afford to make any mistakes on Thursday.

“It’s a big game which could open the doors for us to the second round,” said the Sevilla striker and 2007 African Footballer of the Year.

“It’ll be tough against a good Algerian side invigorated by their status as World Cup qualifiers, but that won’t put us off getting a good result.”

Looking back on Sunday’s fightback in which Mali hadn’t scored one goal by the 76th minute Kanoute said: “Mentally we responded well, but it wasn’t sufficient for a Mali team that is capable of much better.

“Our start was catastrophic, but we’ll have sorted ourselves out by the time we face Algeria.”