Riyad Mahrez scored twice as Algeria made a profitable begin to their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations marketing campaign, beating 10-man Sudan 3-0 on the Stade Prince Moulay El Hassan.
Former Manchester Metropolis star Mahrez netted both aspect of Salah Adil’s Thirty ninth-minute dismissal for a second bookable offence, after a poorly timed problem on Rayan Ait-Nouri.
And the win was sealed by substitute Ibrahim Maza 5 minutes from time, seeing Algeria sit atop of Group E forward of their second group recreation towards Burkina Faso.
Algeria wanted simply two minutes to get themselves forward when Mahrez collected Hicham Boudaoui’s improvised backheel earlier than curling the ball into the bottom-left nook.
Sudan responded rapidly to going behind, however their probabilities of a comeback have been made much more tough when Adil was proven a pink card, having already been booked for a useless sort out on Ramy Bensebaini simply 17 minutes into the competition.
Algeria struggled to make their man benefit rely and have been compelled to attend till simply earlier than the hour to register their subsequent shot on the right track, however Baghdad Bounedjah’s strike from contained in the field was brilliantly stopped by the toes of Monged El Neel.
Regardless of their resolve, Sudan’s defence was ultimately breached once more when Mohammed Amoura’s sensational outside-of-the-foot go discovered Mahrez, who took a contact earlier than coolly slotting residence within the sixtieth minute.
And the win was sealed by Maza’s late strike from Bounedjah’s headed knockdown, with Amoura additionally hitting the publish with a shocking strike from a intelligent nook routine.
FULL-TIME!
A clean begin for Algeria with a 3-0 win of their opening match. #TotalEnergiesAFCON2025 | @tecnomobile pic.twitter.com/kZVT5VxyPV
— TotalEnergies AFCON 2025 (@CAF_Online) December 24, 2025
However within the different recreation within the group, two targets in stoppage time from Georgi Minoungou and Edmond Tapsoba helped Burkina Faso to a dramatic 2-1 win over Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea had been lowered to 10 males when Basilio Ndong was despatched off within the fiftieth minute, however they nonetheless took the lead by Marvin Anieboh’s Eighty fifth-minute strike.
Nevertheless, Burkina Faso poured males ahead as eight minutes of stoppage time have been added on, they usually have been rewarded when Minoungou fired low into the online to stage.
And with simply seconds remaining, Tapsoba headed within the winner within the 98th minute after goalkeeper Jesus Owono pushed a cross within the route of the Bayer Leverkusen man.
Information Debrief: Magic Mahrez makes AFCON historical past for Algeria
Along with his brace, Mahrez grew to become Algeria’s all-time high scorer at AFCON with eight targets, overtaking Lakhdar Belloumi (six). He has now netted 4 instances and offered two assists in his final 4 appearances for his nationwide crew in all competitions.
Certainly, he matched his complete for objective involvements throughout his 19 earlier AFCON outings (two targets and 4 assists). This was additionally Mahrez’s sixth brace for Algeria, and his first since October 2021 towards Niger in World Cup qualifying.
Mahrez additionally completed the match with team-high totals for touches within the opposition field (5), go accuracy (95%) and complete crosses (six), as Algeria completed the sport with an anticipated targets (xG) complete of 1.98 from their 14 photographs, to Sudan’s 0.32 xG from their 5 makes an attempt.
Algeria have now received their opening match at AFCON for the primary time since beating Kenya 2-0 in 2019. They’ve prevented defeat of their final six AFCON openers (W3 D3), equalling their longest such run, set between 1980 and 1990 (W4 D2).