Attendance: 30325
The first half of this match was the poorest I have seen for a long while. I watched the France v Uruguay match the other day and thought that was poor but that was nothing compared to this. It was so poor that the only thing of note after the first 25 mintues was the Mexican wave in the crowd.
Slovenia didn't really offer much of a striking threat and the only real chances of note came from Algeria. Belhadj was looking lively on the wing and everything seemed to go through him. 38th minute saw Algeria's best chance when Halliche headed wide from a few yards out, he really should've done more but the biggest cheer of the half came in the 46th minute when the referee blew the whistle for the end of the half.
The second half continued in the same way, very little from both sides and even though the coaches made changes, this didnt inspire their teams to attack more. In the 70th minute we had the first attack of any note. Algerian substitute Ghezzal lept like a gazelle but the header went over, then we went back to the dullness, but the striker didn't stay out of the news after this. Slovenia didn't really offer anything in this match and all the "action" came from the Algerians. I am wondering whether the Slovenians boots were to slick for them after the Slovenian Prime Minister kept his promise of cleaning the players boots if they qualified for the world cup.
72nd minute Ghezzal who was a 58th minute substitute handled a cross in the Slovenian area, off target, and the referee rightly gave him a second yellow card which was followed by the second red of the tournament, the Algerian bench couldn't believe his stupidity.
77th minute Suler of Slovenia went to sleep when his goalkeeper passed the ball to him and Ziani nipped in, found himself one on one with the keeper but Handanovic got down well and saved the defenders blushes.
Ten minutes from time Slovenia went ahead. The man without a club, midfielder Robert Koren had a shot from 25 yards out, bounced twice and it looked like it went through the keepers arms. England's Rob Green has had the fumble attention taken away from him after this incident. Slovenia's first real effort on target ended in a goal, a real smash and grab moment.
Slovenia managed to shut the rest of the game out. It had its moments but it won't be one that lives long in the memory of football supporters around the world. All we know at the moment are that Slovenia lead the group.
A Slovenian travel company must be quaking in their boots at the moment as they have promised to refund all holidays booked between March 10-June 10 if Slovenia win the World Cup, I think they are safe though
Algeria: 16. Chaouchi, 2. Bougherra, 3. Belhadj 4. Yahia, 5. Halliche, 8. Lacen, 11. Djebbour, 13. Matmour, 15. Ziani, 19. Yebda, 21. Kadir
Subs Used: 9. Ghezzal, 10. Saifi, 17. Guedioura
Slovenia: 1. Handanovic, 2. Breko, 4. Suler, 5. Cesar, 8. Koren, 10. Birsa, 11. Novakovic, 13. Jokic, 14. Dedic, 17. Kirm, 18. Radosavijevic
Subs Used: 7. Pecnik 9. Ljubijankic, 20. Komac
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