"We gave presents to the opposition," he said reflecting on a 1-0 defeat at the weekend in their opening game against Slovenia, who are the lowest ranked team in the group.
Forward Abdelkader Ghezzal was sent off after 73 minutes for controlling the ball with his hand and six minutes later keeper Faouzi Chaouchi let the ball slip past him into the net.
"I hope that in the coming games we don't make errors like that which will be more costly because Slovenia weren't able to put us in danger at any moment," said Yahia.
Ghezzal had been on the pitch for just 15 minutes but had already begun to worry Slovenia's defence when he was sent off and will now miss the England game in Cape Town on Friday.
"When we lose Ghezzal we have one less (up front) and the tactics change completely so destabilise us a little bit," said Algeria defender Majid Bougherra."
Keeper Chaouchi cut a solitary figure when he crept off the pitch alone at the end of the match leaving his team mates to offer commiserations to their thousands of dejected fans at the Polokwane stadium for Algeria's first World Cup in 24 years.
"We must psychologically bounce back from this disappointment," coach Rabah Saadane said, describing the looming England match as "very, very difficult."
Algeria's Yazid Mansouri, who was dropped from the team with Yahia taking over as captain for the opening match, said they would try to take advantage of England's goalkeeping weakness.
Asked about Green, he said: "We will play on that."
"Football's not maths. England have great individual players but we saw (on Saturday) that maybe the team is not at its very best," he said.
"We will play like lions," said midfielder Hassan Yebda. "We have nothing to lose," added Bougherra.
