{"id":13358,"date":"2026-01-09T14:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/13358\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:17:08","slug":"can-2025-algeria-vs-nigeria-the-most-important-thing-is-vladimir-petkovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/13358\/","title":{"rendered":"CAN 2025 \/ Algeria vs Nigeria: &#8220;The most important thing is&#8230;&#8221;, Vladimir Petkovic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CAN 2025 \/ Algeria \u2013 Nigeria: Petkovic emphasizes the importance of mentality<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4e6b0710f30c6578c94e389ce08aad8a.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>CAN 2025 \/ Algeria vs Nigeria: &#8220;The most important thing is&#8230;&#8221;, Vladimir Petkovic<\/p>\n<p>On the eve of a highly anticipated CAN 2025 quarter-final clash against Nigeria, Algeria head coach Vladimir Petkovic delivered a speech that was both measured and demanding. Speaking to the media, the tactician set the tone for a showdown where attention to detail and mental freshness will be decisive, especially with a short recovery period between matches:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have mainly tried to recover because there is little time between the two matches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The question of Isma\u00ebl Bennacer&#8217;s availability remains unresolved right up until the end. Petkovic is sticking to a cautious approach:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see. There is still one training session left, and we\u2019ll have more answers then. Right now, I can&#8217;t tell you anything on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then clarified: \u201cWe have one last training session, and after that I will decide which player is ready or not. Before then, I can&#8217;t tell you if Bennacer is ready or not,\u201d and finally, \u201cFor Bennacer, we\u2019ll only know at the very last moment if he can play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The same uncertainty surrounds Mohamed Amine Tougai:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not at 100% yet, but we hope to have him back soon,\u201d and \u201cTougai arrived injured, he hasn\u2019t been able to fully recover, but we still hope to get him back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beyond individual cases, the coach hammered home a central message:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing is the mentality, everything starts with that, and from that perspective we have been flawless. We have confidence and quality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fully aware of the opposition\u2019s strengths, he concluded bluntly:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery detail will matter against Nigeria. Nothing can be left to chance. We have the quality and we believe in ourselves. Now it\u2019s up to us to deliver a great performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And he warned:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTomorrow we\u2019ll have to be as solid in attack as in defense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAN 2025 \/ Algeria \u2013 Nigeria: Petkovic emphasizes the importance of mentality CAN 2025 \/ Algeria vs Nigeria:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[390,3943,122,1271],"class_list":{"0":"post-13358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-algeria","9":"tag-ismael-bennacer","10":"tag-nigeria","11":"tag-vladimir-petkovic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}