Angola coach Pedro Goncalves has expressed his dismay following his side's goalless draw with Mauritania in the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) in the Algerian city of Oran on Friday.

The Portuguese tactician was visibly distraught in the post-match press conference as he lamented on how despite the result, he was proud of his team's performance at the Miloud Hadefi Stadium.

"We tried to control the game like we did against Mali. We played well but when I look back at the first game, drawing made us very fragile. We tried to score from several chances, and we imposed our philosophy, but Mauritania defended well," Goncalves said in the post-match press conference.

"We could have scored from a corner chance but in general, we fell short today. We imposed our philosophy in the game, but Mauritania was a fresh team. We made some counterattacks to find opportunities to score but we did not make it count in the final third."

"We continued to go forward against our opponents, but it was a difficult game that we tried to change. We tried all we could, but Mauritania defended very well. In the last minutes of the game, we defended well to avoid conceding late like we did in our first game against Mali but on the other side, we could not score."

"Now, it is a very difficult situation for us even though we are on top of the group. Of course, we can have some hope. We do not have to hide from the situation. Qualification to the next round is now between two teams which will try to win and do their best to achieve their objective. For the moment, we are not qualified."

Angola have amassed two points following two draws in Group D and sit top of the table standings ahead of Mauritania and Mali who have one point from one game.

The two sides meet on January 24 at the same stadium at 1600hrs GMT.