After the “Greens” fell by three
Egyptian football star and current analyst for BeIN Sports, Mohamed Aboutrika, launched a scathing tactical attack on the technical choices of coach Vladimir Petkovic, following the harsh loss suffered by the Algerian national team against its Argentine counterpart, holding goalkeeper Luca Zidane directly responsible for the result.
In an analytical studio after the match on BeIN Sports channels, Aboutrika described the defensive performance of the “Desert Warriors” as “total tactical chaos,” pointing to the complete absence of the midfield system, which left the depth of the pitch exposed to the movements of Argentine star Lionel Messi. Abu Trika said: “Giving a player as valuable as Messi a freedom of up to 20 metres, and allowing him to touch the ball more than 50 times without supervision, is clear football suicide that eliminated collective differences and left the defense facing a continuous hurricane.”
Abu Trika’s criticism did not stop at the collective aspect, but rather extended to include disastrous individual mistakes, as he put goalkeeper Luca Zidane in his crosshairs, stressing that he was the “main reason” behind the defeat after conceding three goals as a result of rudimentary lapses, considering that the Algerian players presented the match on a golden platter to the world champion.
These harsh statements put Bosnian coach Vladimir Petkovic in the face of a storm of public and media criticism, amid intense demands for an urgent review of the defensive system and goalkeeping options, before returning to the battlefield of the decisive official qualifiers.
