England line-up: James, Johnson, Cole, Gerrard (c), Terry, Lennon (Wright-Phillips, 63'), Lampard, Rooney, Barry (Crouch, 84'), Carragher, Heskey (Defoe, 74')
Algeria line-up: Mbohli, Bougherra, Belhadj, Yahia (c), Halliche, Boudebouz (Abdoun, 74'), Lacen, Matmour, Ziani (Guedioura, 81'), Yebda (Mesbah, 88'), Kadir
The Sun's highlights write-up summed this game up perfectly: '7:30 Algeria kick off, 7:42 A little brown bird roosts itself on the Algerian goal, err that's it.' And to be honest if the cameraman had focused on the little brown bird throughout the entire match, it probably would've been more entertaining than watching the actual match. Now this may shock everyone but I never have been or will be an avid England fan, mainly because I'm a total Manchester United fan and hate all the Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal (don't be silly!) and Manchester City players English or not. And I'm not surprised by this result but even I thought England would win.
Throughout the game there was probably only two entertaining moments, both of which were comical goalkeeping moments. The first came from Algeria's deputy goalkeeper, who replaced howling keeper Chaouchi, Gerrard just looped an innocuous ball high in the air and almost lobbed Mbohli who was standing on his line! Apparently he's had a trial for Manchester United and based on that effort he will not be wearing a Manchester United shirt unless he buys a replica one down at his local JJB or black market dealer. The other came from Ol' Reliable David James who looked favourite to catch and collect another innocuous ball which he manage to drop. Now everyone was wondering who would play in goal in this game and to me it was obvious, James was left out against USA because he had picked up a knee injury a few days before and Capello didn't want to risk him. But being fit for Algeria James was always going to play tonight as he is wearing the number 1 jersey, common sense. This leaves England needing a win against Slovenia to guarantee progression and even that looks doubtful.
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