Algeria and Russia make 1 change each ahead of crucial World Cup clash

Published February 05, 2015

The coaches of Algeria and Russia have each made one change for their crucial World Cup Group H encounter on Thursday.

Algeria's Vahid Halilhodzic replaced his captain Madjid Bouguerra with Esseid Belkalem. Rafik Halliche will lead the Algeria team instead.

Russia manager Fabio Capello has called up forward Aleksandr Kerzhakov, who scored the team's only goal so far in the opening 1-1 draw with South Korea. Kerzhakov replaces Maksim Kanunnikov.

Algeria can progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time if it beats Russia at Arena da Baixada in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba. A draw may well be enough, too.

Russia can only progress if it beats Algeria and South Korea does not beat group leader Belgium by a margin that would undo the current advantage Capello's team has on goal difference.

___

Lineups:

Algeria: Rais Mbolhi, Esseid Belkalem, Djamel Mesbah, Aissa Mandi, Rafik Halliche, Sofiane Feghouli, Yacine Brahimi, Carl Medjani, Islam Slimani, Nabil Bentaleb, Abdelmoumene Djabou.

Russia: Igor Akinfeev, Alexei Kozlov, Dmitry Kombarov, Vasily Berezutskiy, Sergei Ignashevich, Denis Glushakov, Viktor Faizulin, Oleg Shatov, Alexander Samedov, Alexander Kokorin, Aleksandr Kerzhakov.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/algeria-and-russia-make-1-change-each-ahead-of-crucial-world-cup-clash