Togo began her bid for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on a sour note as they lost 1-0 to Algeria on Sunday evening in a highly tempered match at the Mustapha Tchaker Stadium in Bilda.

Hanni Soufine scored the winning goal by the Fennecs middway in the first half when he fired home a cross Attal Youcef after a quick counter attack.

It was a poor performance by the Hawks who looked disjointed and out of sourts, while chances were few and far between.Algeria startes on the ascendancy but Togo had their first real chance when Emmanuel Adebayor beat Fenneces goalie in the box but shot narrowly wide.

Togo created a few chances with Mlapa Koukou,Bebou Ilhas and Gregnon Simon putting in some good runs but the finishing was poor.

Adebayor was tightly marked by Mandi Aissa and allowed little room to move, while Djene Dekonen and Atakora got shots in that did not trouble Algeria’s defence.

At the back, Togo were very shaky with Ouro Soma failing to clear the ball after a defensive mixup on 23rd minutes, and Hanni Soufanie made no mistake to find himself aganist Bassa Djeri and a nice lobe openes the scores for Fennecs.

Togo’s play from set pieces was also disappointing as Mlapa,Laba and Bebou all blasted wide from freekicks.

In the second half,Hawks opened up their game a bit but they could not break through Algeria’s tight defence.

Their best chamce on the goal came on 53 minutes when they went on a quick counterattack that split Algeria’s defence but Adebayor shot went over the bar.

In the final stages Adebayor and Laba missed a lost of chances as they dominated the play with great scoring chances in the 74th and in 89th minute and at the end they were left to count on missed chances.