Monday, June 30, 2014 Estadio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegro
Kick-off: 21.00 BST (Brazil Standard Time: 0200 AM, 1, July 2014 Bangladesh Standard Time)
Germany is one of the top four pretournament favorites of Brazil 2014. Many strong teams including even Argentina and Brazil have so far failed to do justice to their potentials. Reigning Champions Spain, European Giants Italy and England have gone home. But Germany made strong statement in the very first match against strong Portugal destroying their chances completely with a 4-0 margin.
Though they were stretched to their limits in 2-2 draw with Ghana. With the progress to next round assured they took it a bit easy beating their other contestant USA 1-0 to cruise into the group of 16.
Algeria’s footballers have already made history in Brazil but for Lakhdar Belloumi there is one thing left to do now they have finally made it through the group stage for the first time. Algeria qualified behind group leader Belgium with a strong win against South Korea 4-2 and sharing points 1-1 with Russia. They also not looked disgraced in 1-2 defeat against Belgium. Algeria is one of two African countries out of the five – Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon which moved smoothly in the second round. All the other teams were rated higher above Algeria yet Algeria made Africa proud playing to their full potential.
The telephone line between Brazil and Algeria was crackling but the message is clear: “We must take revenge on the Germans.” In Algeria, it is impossible to look forward to today’s last-16 meeting without also looking back, and Belloumi is the ideal man to tell us why. He scored the winning goal when Algeria beat West Germany 2-1 at the 1982 World Cup – a famous victory which would have provided the springboard for the tournament debutants to become the first African team to reach the second phase but for one of the World Cup’s murkier episodes.
“We beat Germany and Chile and if it hadn’t been for the Germans and Austrians cheating us we’d have reached the second round,” he says. Belloumi is referring to the shameless way West Germany and Austria contrived a result in their final group game to send both through at the expense of an Algeria who had defeated.
Algeria have played Germany twice and beaten them on both occasions. They are one of only three countries never to have lost to the Germans. It was way back in 1982 when Germany and Austria played out what went down in the history books as the "Disgrace of Gijon" to eliminate Algeria from the World Cup. Tonight, in Porto Alegre, Algeria faces Germany for the first time since that infamous match - with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. On paper, this match should be no contest.
Algeria had to wait 32 more years to see its footballers win again on the global stage. Hence the scale of the celebrations that have followed the Desert Foxes’ 4-2 group success over South Korea and subsequent draw with Russia. “Everybody is happy now because we’ve reached the second round,” says Belloumi. “Now there’s a new generation carrying the torch. We must go into the game against Germany with a spirit of revenge.”
Germany will probably miss Arsenal's Lukas Podolski with a thigh problem suffered against the USA. Full back Jérôme Boateng remains a doubt with a knee injury. Algeria should be unchanged from the team that drew with Russia.
Whatever soccer pundits may predict Algerians will not surrender to much superior Germany without a fight. The blessing of Muslim community will be with them. The Ramadan month will also give them additional strength to fight and achieve dreams. This is the fourth world Cup appearance for the African side. The team is very organized and disciplined. No soccer enthusiasts will give any chance to them against a very strong machine like Germany having natural strikers Thomas Muller and Miroslav Klose.
From my very close association with Germans in my professional career in different countries I know Germans play every game and do everything to win and leave nothing unturned to win. What they did 32 years from now was definitely a disgrace for the Germans. All but only two of the present German squad was not even born. Algerians may use the term that as motivation factor. But we hope the match will be played with no malice .We predict a 2-1 win for Germany. This match may see a new record of Miroslav Kolse making the record of highest individual scorer surpassing the Ronaldo of Brazil.
Germany (Possible, 4-2-3-1): Neuer; Boateng, Hummels, Mertesacker, Hoewedes; Schweinsteiger, Lahm; Kroos, Özil, Götze; Müller.
Algeria (Possible, 5-3-2): Mbolhi; Belkalem, Halliche, Mesbah, Medjani, Mandi; Bentaleb, Feghouli, Brahimi; Slimani, Djabou.
BDST: 1405 HRS, JUN 30, 2014
