Algeria vs South Africa Africa Cup of Nations 19-01-2015

Algeria vs South Africa - Competition: Africa Cup of Nations

Algeria team played a very good World Cup in summer, even almost defeated world champions Germany when got beaten in the Round of 16 not before extra time. Most players of the young side were born and educated in France and since Vahid Halilhodzic retired after the World Cup, they now also have a French coach in Christian Gourcuff. The ‘Fennecs’ stand for an offensive short passing game and they do have strong offensive players like Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia), Yacine Brahimi (FC Porto), El Arbi Hillel Soudani (Zagreb), Islam Slimani (Sporting Lisbon) or Saphir Taider (Sassuolo). On the other side their defence is not the most solid and with Essaïd Belkalem (Trabzon) an important central defender will miss the Africa Cup due to an injury. Algeria won the first five games in the qualification, lost the only match in Mali when were already qualified.

South Africa did not qualify for the last World Cup and were even kicked out as hosts on group stage in the 2014 African Nations Championship. Considering that the ‘Bafana Bafana’ had won the Africa Cup four times in the past, the last years were obviously very disappointing for them, they also did not survive the group stage of the 2010 World Cup in their own country. But at least they managed to stay unbeaten in a 2015 Africa Cup qualifying group with Nigeria, Kongo and Sudan and are meanwhile undefeated in eleven games since March 2014. Shakes Mashaba, who became national coach in July 2014, nominated mostly players from teams of the South African Premier Soccer League. Striker Tokelo Rantie plays in England for the Championship side AFC Bournemouth, defender Anele Ngcongca for the Belgium team KRC Genk. Due to a knee injury defender Patrick Phungwayo has been ruled out of the Africa Cup.

Algeria last 5 matches:

11/10/14 Malawi 0 – 2 Algeria
15/10/14 Algeria 3 – 0 Malawi
15/11/14 Algeria 3 – 1 Ethiopia
19/11/14 Mali 2 – 0 Algeria
11/01/15 Tunisia 1 – 1 Algeria

South Africa last 5 matches:

15/11/14 South Africa 2 – 1 Sudan
19/11/14 Nigeria 2 – 2 South Africa
30/11/14 South Africa 2 – 0 Côte d’Ivoire
04/01/15 South Africa 1 – 0 Zambia
10/01/15 Cameroon 1 – 1 South Africa

Match date: 19 January 2015
Kick Off Time: 19:00 GMT
Venue: Estadio de Mongomo, Mongomo

You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]