Sunday, 13th June 2010
The Koren Moment
 
Algeria vs Slovenia
in Polokwane.
Both teams reached the 2010 World Cup finals through a play-off:
Algeria beating Egypt and Slovenia getting the better of Russia.
Within three minutes, Algeria's Nadir Belhadj made his presence known
with a free-kick that stung the palms of Samir Handanovic.
Other than that, considering one of these teams had the chance to go
top of Group C neither showed the authority or
imagination to do so.
Rafik Halliche's header, from a corner, was the only other real
goalmouth incident of the first-half.
Slovenia didn't even earn a corner, until five minutes before the
break. Valter Birsa then earned another, a couple of minutes later; Faouzi Chaouchi made
the save look spectacular but the shot, although high, was straight at him.
Half-time: 0:0
Slovenia showed a little more conviction going forward early in the
second-half; Matjaž Kek then deciding that perhaps things would work better with
Zlatan Ljubijankic up front instead of Zlatko Dedic.
Twenty minutes before the end, Algeria tried to put their mark on the
game; substitute Abdelkader Ghezzal twice getting close - but still not close enough.
As Ghezzal stupidly earned a yellow card for shirt-pulling, shortly
after coming on, a deliberate hand-ball in the Slovakia area in the 73rd minute reduced
Algeria to ten men.
Just when it seemed like Slovenia didn't have a clue how to make the
best of their man advantage, Robert Koren turned on the edge of the Algeria penalty area
and his low shot bounced over the open-to-collect arms of Faouzi Chaouchi.
Slovenia probably didn't deserve to win the match but the uninspiring
victory does put them top of the table.
Final Score:
Algeria 0 Slovenia 1
 Goalscorers:
0:1 Robert Koren (Slovenia)
Man of The Match:
Robert Koren - for breaking the boredom.
Teams
 Algeria:
16 Faouzi Chaouchi; 3 Nadir Belhadj, 5 Rafik Halliche, 2 Madjid Bougherra, 4 Antar Yahia;
19 Hassan Yebda, 15 Karim Ziani, 8 Medhi Lacen, 21 Foued Kadir; 11 Rafik Djebbour, 13
Karim Matmour.
 Slovenia:
1 Samir Handanovic; 13 Bojan Jokic, 5 Bostjan Cesar, 4 Marko Suler, 2 Miso Brecko; 17
Andraz Kirm, 18 Aleksandar Radosavljevic, 8 Robert Koren, 10 Valter Birsa; 14 Zlatko
Dedic, 11 Milivoje Novakovic.
Referee:
Carlos Batres (Guatemala)
 Substitutions:
53 Mins (Slovenia) - 9 Zlatan Ljubijankic on for 14 Zlatko Dedic
58 Mins (Algeria) - 9 Abdelkader Ghezzal on for 11 Rafik Djebbour
80 Mins (Algeria) - 10 Rafik Saifi on for 13 Karim Matmour
82 Mins (Algeria) - 17 Adl�ne Gu�dioura on for 21 Foued Kadir
84 Mins (Slovenia) - 7 Nejc Pecnik on for 10 Valter Birsa
87 Mins (Slovenia) - 20 Andrej Komac on for 18 Aleksandar Radosavljevic
 5 Yellow
Cards:
35 Mins - Aleksandar Radosavljevic (Slovenia)
59 Mins - Abdelkader Ghezzal (Algeria)
73 Mins - Abdelkader Ghezzal (Algeria)
93 Mins - Andrej Komac (Slovenia)
95 Mins - Hassan Yebda (Algeria)
 1 Red Card:
73 Mins - Abdelkader Ghezzal (Algeria)
Previous Encounters:
This is the first time Algeria meet Slovenia.
Algeria are making their third appearance in the World Cup Finals while
Slovenia (once a part of Yugoslavia) make their second.
In 1976, Yugoslavia beat Algeria (2:1) in Algiers.
2010 World Cup Finals - Knockout Stage.
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