AFCON 2025 – Algeria vs Nigeria: Mahrez expects a very difficult match.

Before the highly anticipated showdown with Nigeria in the 2025 AFCON quarterfinal, the captain of the Algerian national team, Riyad Mahrez, warned that the Fennecs will have to deliver a performance of the very highest level to stand a chance of reaching the last four.

Algeria’s captain, Riyad Mahrez, expects a highly contested quarterfinal against Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations. According to him, nothing will be easy against the Super Eagles, whom he knows perfectly. The two teams will meet again on Saturday for a highly anticipated duel, inevitably recalling their memorable AFCON 2019 encounter, marked by Mahrez’s decisive free-kick at the end of the semi-final, which had eliminated Nigeria.

On the day after the Fennecs’ qualification against DR Congo in the Round of 16, the Algerian winger spoke cautiously but ambitiously to the media. “We know Nigeria well. It will be a very difficult match“, the former Leicester City player said. Asked about the possibility of reliving a scenario similar to that of 2019, Mahrez flashed a smile: Another last-minute free-kick? We’ll see. In football, anything is possible.