Mauritania goalkeeper Babacar Niasse has dedicated his Man of the Match award to his teammates after their historic win over Algeria in the last group game of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

The goalkeeper pulled great saves to keep Mauritania in the game after they took the lead in the first half. Niasse dedicated his award to the entire team and expressed gratitude to the people of Mauritania people of Mauritania.

“I am very proud to have this trophy, I think this is collective for us, this for all of us even though I have the trophy but it is for all of us because we prepared this together,” he said as quoted by CAFOnline.

“I was extremely proud also, I will like to thank Mauritania for giving me this opportunity, I am very proud to represent my country.”

The win was Mauritania’s first in the history of the AFCON and Niasse revealed he knew game was going to be difficult.

“We knew this game was going to be difficult but we knew we could do something,” he said, adding: ”I will try and learn from my errors and improve.”