Wolves star Rayan Ait-Nouri played his first AFCON match last night as Algeria took on Angola in their opening game of the tournament.
The 22-year-old is looking to achieve international success, after switching his allegiance last year.
Ait-Nouri has enjoyed a fabulous season with Wolves so far, and as a result he was recently picked for Algeria’s AFCON squad by Djamel Belmadi.
Ait-Nouri was handed a start last night by Belmadi in the nation’s first group-stage match against Angola, which finished 1-1 in the end. While that was a disappointing result for Algeria, Ait-Nouri gave a solid account of himself for Les Verts…
Wolves star Rayan Ait-Nouri impresses on AFCON debut for Algeria
This was a game Algeria were favourites to win and so, to only draw was a disappointment for them.
In the last tournament, Algeria went out in the group stages so they are looking to do much better this time around.
Algeria did get off to a good start when Baghdad Bounedjah put them in front inside 20 minutes.
But they were then pegged back in the second-half by Angola, with Mabululu scoring a penalty.
It has not been a particularly good opening round of fixtures for the big hitters, with Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt all failing to win their first games.
But at least Ait-Nouri enjoyed a good performance. The Wolves star played as a left-back and his Sofascore data makes for encouraging reading.
He had the most touches of any player in the match with 91, and completed 53/60 passes (88%), two of which were ‘key’.
No other Algeria player made more defensive actions than him (3), and he also won a very respectable 7/11 duels.
Great to see
It is really good to see Ait-Nouri making a solid impact for his national side in an international tournament.
The £10 million Wolves signing from Angers has been in fantastic form this season back at Molineux and clearly that confidence is still there.
Gary O’Neil has worked wonders with him. He was out in the cold last season under Julen Lopetegui but this term he’s been absolutely superb, with the new manager calling on him at almost every turn.
O’Neil has described Ait-Nouri as ‘mad’, but someone who ‘the sky’s the limit’ for.
Aside from Pedro Neto, he is perhaps the biggest young talent currently on show at Molineux, and it’s exciting to see what kind of level he could reach in the coming years.