World Cup: Algeria vs Russia preview

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June 25th, 2014
Back World Cup: Algeria vs Russia preview

Qualification is up for grabs in Group H as Algeria and Russia meet in Curitiba on Thursday for a place in the last sixteen of the World Cup. Belgium are already through thanks to six points from their first two games, while the Algerians and the Russians will battle it out to secure the second spot.

Algeria lost their opening match of the tournament to Belgium but bounced back with 4-2 victory over South Korea. Vahid Halilhodzic's side would need a draw against Russia to advance. Fabio Capello's Russia have no choice but to claim three points if they want to leapfrog their opponents and progress to the next round. Neither Algeria or Russia have ever reached the second round of a World Cup.

Algeria have no fresh injury worries ahead of the match, while Aleksandr Kozlov is in doubt for Russia after suffering a knock during the match against Belgium.

Probable starting line-ups:

Algeria: Mbolhi - Bougherra, Mesbah, Halliche, Mandi Bentaleb - Feghouli, Medjani, Brahimi - Slimani, Djabou

Russia: Akinfeev - Kombarov, Berezutskiy, Ignashevich - Glushakov, Kokorin, Shatov, Samedov, Fayzulin - Kozlov, Kanunnikov

My prediction: A hard-fought match and a spectacular 2-2 draw.

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:

Algeria win - 27/10 Draw - 13/5 Russia win - 11/10

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