Algeria face highly motivated Togo

at 8pm.
But Togo and coach Didier Six will prove no push-overs, as they showed when going within two minutes of holding competition favourites Ivory Coast in their opener.

Gervinho’s 88th-minute goal tipped the scales 2-1 in the Ivorians’ favour, but Six was seething over a second-half disallowed goal he felt was entirely legitimate.

Motivated by this perceived injustice, the Togolese will prove slippery customers for an Algeria side undone by a last-minute goal having largely dominated Tunisia in Monday’s tense Maghreb derby.

While neither country, crossing swords for the first time, can seal a quarter-final place today, defeat would almost certainly spell the end of the road. Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic believes his inexperienced side were the moral winners against Tunisia, even though the harsh reality tells a different story.

“We’re in a complex position,” he said. “We can’t escape that — we have two matches left, and only two teams go through. We’ll analyse certain things to improve them.”

The former Ivory Coast coach rued Monday’s defeat in an encounter Algeria largely dominated.
“We had 15 shots at goal, they had four, we ran further, we had 10% more possession, we had all the match statistics in our favour, but we lost.

“It’s the reality of the result that really hurts us. The buck stops with me, it’s the fault of Vahid, leave the players out of it,” he said.

With a win required over Togo, changes are in the air.
“Perhaps there will be changes in order to take risks even if, in the final 20 minutes, I take a chance and stick on four strikers.”

Midfielder Sofiane Feghouli urged his teammates to stick together.
“Everything is not lost — we still have two games to redeem ourselves.

“We must cling together and remain united in defeat. Although it’s going to be difficult, we’ll try our best to win the next game against Togo,” he told mtn.football.

Six, meanwhile, will be keeping a close eye on the referee’s decisions after lashing out at what he described as bias shown by the man in the middle toward Ivory Coast. — AFP.