Algerian international playmaker Karim Ziani has said that he and his teammates will perform much better at the World Cup than their 3-0 loss to Ireland would indicate. The player did not seem too concerned with the final result and claimed it did not reflect the entirety of what happened in the match.  

“I’d rather lose friendlies and get good results in official matches. Numerous teams have lost in friendlies and then succeeded at the World Cup. We shouldn’t overdramatise things after this defeat, especially since we’re in the middle of our preparations for the World Cup,” he said.

“We’ll be better at the World Cup. Things will change and you can’t judge us on just this friendly.”

Nevertheless, Ziani did admit that he was a bit disappointed with how things went on at the weekend, mostly because the team let down all the Algerian fans that made the trip to Ireland to see their heroes in action. According to the former Marseille midfielder, the team will be much improved once some of the pillars of the team such as Madjid Bougherra and Antar Yahia return from injury.

“I’m obviously not satisfied. I’m really sorry for the supporters who came en masse to see us. I promise them that we’ll show another face with the return of all our injured players,” he explained.

“You can’t replace players like Bougherra and Yahia. You could see that especially on high balls. The absences handicapped us, even though the new players did their best. It wasn’t going to be easy since we were playing together for the first time. You need some time to become cohesive. Friendly matches will be beneficial to LIS to improve that.”