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After twenty four years in the doldrums, the Desert Foxes return to the World Cup taking on Slovenia in today’s opening fixture.

This will be the
first international game between the countries. A must win for both
sides, the Algerian coach, Rabah Saadane, says he will bench the side’s
captain Yazid Mansouri for the team’s World Cup opener because his form
is not good enough.

Injury troubles
have certainly wobbled the Algerian camp and a poor run of recent form,
including a harsh 3-0 loss to an average Republic of Ireland and a
slender 1-0 victory over the United Arab Emirates, does not bode well
for a side that many view as Group C’s whipping boys and term as only
making up the numbers.

Algeria and
Slovenia made their way to the World Cup via play-offs; while Algeria
edged out bitter neighbours Egypt to secure a place, Slovenia made it
to South Africa eliminating the highly tactical Russians at the
playoffs.

Both teams are not willing to stop there as they hope to make impact at the World Cup by at least moving into the next round.

Wolfsburg
midfielder Karim Ziani is arguably the most gifted player available in
the Algerian team and has plenty to prove after a poor domestic season
following his big money move from Marseille.

Slovenia would be
counting on Milivoje Novakovicto help do the damage. Novakovic has
already set a target of reaching the second round for himself and
believes his team can start out well against Algeria Defensively, the
Slovenians has proved they could be very solid, conceding only 4 goals
in 10 games counting including the playoffs games.

For opposite part,
the Algerians have shown their limits at the back-line slumming to
heavy defeats against Serbia (0-3) against Egypt (0-4) amongst many
others.