ALGERIA are clearly no pushovers - as they proved in South Africa when conceding just two goals in a group including England, USA and Slovenia - but you just have to question whether they can do something they failed to do so four years ago and actually score one themselves.

 

Outright odds: 1500/1

To win group: 14/1

To qualify: 7/2

 

Full squad: Mohamed Lamine Zemmamouche (USM Alger), Rais Mbolhi (CSKA Sofia), Cedric Si Mohamed (CS Constantine); Carl Medjani (Valenciennes), Aissa Mandi (Reims), Madjid Bougherra (Lekhwiya), Faouzi Ghoulam (Napoli), Rafik Halliche (Academica), Essaid Belkalem (Watford), Liassine Cadamuro (Real Mallorca), Djamel Mesbah (Livorno), Mehdi Mostefa (Ajaccio); Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia), Saphir Taider (Inter Milan), Medhi Lacen (Getafe), Abdelmoumen Djabou (Club Africain), Yacine Brahimi (Grenada), Nabil Bentaleb (Tottenham), Hassan Yebda (Udinese), Riyad Mahrez (Leicester); Islam Slimani (Sporting Lisbon), Hilal Soudani (Dinamo Zagreb), Nabil Ghilas (Porto).

Manager: Vahid Halihodzic

World Cup record: Group stage (1982, 1986, 2010)

How they qualified (most recent first): Despite a disastrous Africa Cup of Nations in which they managed just one point, Algeria decided to stick with under-pressure boss Vahid Halihodzic and their faith was rewarded by a relatively straight-forward passage.

Algeria dropped just two points in seeing off Mali, Benin and Rwanda as they advanced to the decisive play-off round, where they were drawn to face Burkina Faso. Having lost the first leg away 3-2, a nervy 1-0 victory in the return match saw them progress to Brazil on the away-goals rule.

v Burkina Faso (home) 1-0 (HT 0-0) Bougherra 49

v Burkina Faso (away) 2-3 (HT 0-1) Feghouli 50, Medjani 69

v Mali (home) 1-0 (HT 0-0) Soudani 51

v Rwanda (away) 1-0 (HT 0-0) Taider 51

v Benin (away) 3-1 (HT 2-1) Slimani 38, Slimani 42, Ghilas 78

v Benin (home) 3-1 (HT 1-1) Feghouli 10, Taider 60, Slimani 90+2

v Mali (away) 1-2 (HT 1-1) Slimani 6

v Rwanda (home) 4-0 (HT 2-0) Feghouli 26, Soudani 32, 83 Slimani 80

Goalscorers: Algeria's very own SAS attacking threat of Islam Slimani and Hilal El Arbi Soudani scored eight of their side's 13 goals during the qualifying group stage - although the latter contributed most of those with five. Midfielder Sofiane Feghouli also chipped in with two goals, in addition to a crucial away strike against Burkina Faso in the play-offs.

Half-time/full-time: Of Algeria's 16 goals throughout the whole qualification process, only six were scored in the first half. Five of their eight qualifying games were level at the break - three of which were goalless - while the only two times Algeria were leading at half time they did go on to win the game.

Clean sheets: From the eight qualification matches, the Algerians kept four clean sheets, three of which came at home, the other in a 1-0 away win against Rwanda. The three goals conceded in the first leg of their play-off tie with Burkina Faso was only the second time they conceded more than one goal in a game.

Win to nil: Algeria recorded four wins to nil (in eight games), including the crunch play-off second-leg tie with Burkina Faso.

Cards: Counting reds as two, Algeria's eight qualification games produced 29 cards. Of these, Algeria received seven yellows and no reds - a good disciplinary record by almost anyone's standards.

Other competitive internationals (most recent first): Last year's Africa Cup of Nations campaign was a disappointing one - Algeria bowed out in the group stage, picking up just one point from their three matches.

v Ivory Coast (neutral) 2-2 (HT 0-0) Feghouli 64, Soudani 70

v Togo (neutral) 0-2 (HT 0-1)

v Tunisia (neutral) 0-1 (HT 0-0)

Build-up (most recent first): Algeria have played three friendlies since they booked their place at the World Cup last year and, encouragingly, have won them all.

v Romania (neutral) 2-1 (HT 1-1) Bentaleb 21, Soudani 66

v Armenia (neutral) 3-1 (HT 3-0) Belkalem 13, Ghilas 22, Slimani 41

v Slovenia (home) 2-0 (HT 1-0) Soudani 45+3, Taider 56

 

Team verdict: Algeria are clearly no pushovers - as they proved in South Africa when conceding just two goals in a group including England, USA and Slovenia - but you just have to question whether they can do something they failed to do so four years ago and actually score one themselves.

The betting suggests they are in a two-horse race with South Korea to finish third at best so don't look to Algeria as Africa's best hope of becoming the continent's first ever World Cup winner!

They are 14/1 to top Group H and 7/2 just to qualify for the next round which would be an outstanding achievement. I'm sure if Vahid Halihodzic were being honest, he'd say avoiding three defeats would be the primary objective and, at a push, a win over South Korea, but unless they pull off a shock victory over Belgium or Russia then an early flight home is pretty much unavoidable.