In the Africa Cup of Nations game held on the 23rd of January 2024, Mauritania shockingly secured a victory against Algeria with a score line of 1-0. The only goal of the match was secured in the 36th minute of the first half by Mauritania, which set the stage for a tense and closely contested match.

Shedding light on the statistical attributes of the game, both teams exhibited almost equivalent propensity for aggressive gameplay. Evidence to this includes the three Yellow cards each team garnered during the match. Mauritania earned their cards in the 20th and 46th minutes of the first half and in the 53rd minute of the second half. On the other hand, Algeria received their Yellow cards in the 48th minute of the first half and in the 76th and 83rd minutes of the second half.

When it comes to the teams’ rule infringements, Mauritania committed 19 fouls as opposed to Algeria's 17 fouls. This indicates that Mauritania, despite securing the win, might need to address discipline going forward as they had slightly more rule infringements than Algeria. The offside count too was slightly in favor of Mauritania, who only had one compared to Algeria's two offsides. These violations could have potentially hindered Algeria from turning their game around.

Looking at the set-pieces, Algeria had a slight advantage with 6 corner kicks over Mauritania's 5. However, they were not able to capitalize on these opportunities, which can be seen as a missed chance to put pressure on Mauritania's defense. This highlights Algeria’s need to work on maximizing such opportunities.

Despite these stats, the real game-changer was the early goal by Mauritania. Scoring in the 36th minute of the first half put Mauritania in a strong position, pressuring Algeria to play catch-up. This early goal made a significant impact on the dynamics of the match, shifting the psychological advantage to Mauritania and forcing Algeria to adopt a more aggressive, yet subsequently unsuccessful, offensive strategy.

To conclude, this analysis shows that while both teams had near-equal opportunities in terms of aggression, fouls, and set-pieces, Mauritania managed to leverage their scoring opportunity effectively and maintained their lead till the very end, thereby proving statistically superior in this encounter.

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