AFCON 2024: Assessing Mauritania’s chances of advancing to the knockout stages for the first time – scout report

The Mauritanian team secured a spot in the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, marking its third appearance in its history and remarkably its third consecutive one, after making its debut in the 2019 edition in Egypt and then qualifying for the 2021 edition, which was held in 2022 because of corona, in Cameroon. This reflects the advancement of Mauritanian football despite their elimination from the group stage in both tournaments.

The stagnation that afflicts Mauritanian football is not a predetermined destiny that we must accept, but it is a malady that requires a remedy. With these words, the Mauritanian football revival was initiated by its proponent Ahmed?? Yahya, the incumbent president of the Mauritanian Football Federation.

Football in Mauritania faced many challenges, resulting in severe sanctions on the Mauritanian team for its withdrawal from the qualifiers for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, but the situation improved with the appointment of Ahmed Yahya as the president of the Mauritanian Football Federation in 2011. Ahmed Yahya developed a strategy that lifted Mauritanian football out of the gloomy tunnel it was in, and the progress did not only encompass the first Mauritanian team but also spanned many sectors of football in Mauritania.

The Mauritanian Football Federation utilised $11.1 million allocated by the FIFA program to enhance the infrastructure and implement a drastic football transformation in Mauritania. The Union Building of the Football Federation and the Sheikha Buyidah Stadium are among the facilities that received the funding of the FIFA program.

Mauritania also obtained support from FIFA as the first country to benefit from the FIFA project for school football, and the country gained from this project in 2019, where this program fosters school tournaments in which children participate in the young age groups.

The Mauritanian domestic team competed in the African Nations Championship for the third time, in the 2022 Algeria edition, and managed this time to advance from the group stage, reaching the quarter-finals, where it was ousted by the reigning champion in that edition, Senegal, so is it time to progress from the group stage in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations?

In this tactical analysis, we will discuss the tactics of Mauritania in different phases of play, with clarification of their strengths that appeared in the qualifications and in their last draw with Tunisia in the friendly match before participating in the tournament. These strengths may make them pass the group stage in this difficult group that includes Algeria and Burkina Faso, the third place in the previous edition, and Angola, or at least provide a better performance than the previous edition after receiving three defeats and leaving without any point. We will also discuss the weaknesses that need to be addressed.

Attacking phases

Lets start with the common scheme they use in ball progression, which is asking the midfielder near the ball, a 4-4-3 formation which sometimes transfers to a 4-2-3-1, to drop at the full-backs positions, especially the right full-back, who pushes high drifting wide, as shown below.

The opponents winger is indecisive because he faces two choices: to press the advanced midfielder with the ball or to retreat all this distance with the full-back. What exacerbates the difficulty of the situation is the movement of the Mauritanian winger inside next to the striker to pull the opponents full-back as far as possible. Hence, the full-back is perplexed because they create a numerical superiority over him in a 2-v-1 situation.

The midfielder passes the ball d