The June edition of the FIFA world rankings were released yesterday with Nigeria stuck at the 44th position in the world and sixth in Africa. Algeria and the Cote d’ Ivoire are 22 and 23 in the world and first and second respectively in Africa.Egypt placed 36th, falling a huge 12 places thanks to two poor results this month against Chile and Jamaica. The Pharaohs were starting to rise again and last month reached a three-year high of 24th, but just like their defence against Chile after leading 2-0, they self destructed dropping 12 places to 36th. However, at third place Egypt remained unchanged in Africa, with Sierra Leone making the biggest move, 17 places into 9th place and Algeria managed to leapfrog Cote d’Ivorie into first place.
Meanwhile, Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic was full of optimism ahead of the World Cup after his side beat Romania 2-1 in a friendly featuring, a bizarre incident.
The players were taken off for half-time, two minutes early after fans threw bottles and lit flares, and returned to complete the half before immediately starting the second 45 minutes.
It was the Desert Foxes’ final friendly before heading to Brazil.
“We’ve had the best preparations possible,” said Halilhodzic.
Victory for Algeria, who had lost once in 13 matches, came on the back of a 3-1 defeat of Armenia.
“We have a lot of optimism and confidence as we got to the World Cup,” said Halilhodzic.
“It’s the best match since I arrived – tonight we showed we have the quality to play in matches like this.
“We showed we are capable of building a good game and being disciplined.”
Tottenham teenager Nabil Bentaleb gave Algeria the lead in the 21st minute after a handling error by Romania goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon.
Alexandru Chipciu levelled seven minutes later as he beat the offside trap and rounded goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi, who had charged out of his penalty area.
But when trouble flared two minutes before the break, Swiss referee Nikolaj Haeni took the players off, and Halilhodzic went onto the pitch to appeal for calm.
After a 15-minute break, the teams played out the final two minutes of the first half before immediately changing ends for the restart.
El Arabi Soudani’s winning goal – on 66 minutes – prompted about 15 fans to run onto the pitch, while about 1,000 did likewise when the final whistle blew.
Many dispersed after water sprinklers were turned on, though some continued to clash with stewards in one corner of the pitch.
Algeria open their World Cup campaign against Group H favourites Belgium on 17 June, before facing South Korea and Russia.
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