Brazil beat Algeria 2-0

Written by Nicholas Savage , 24.08 10h55

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Brazil defeated a tough Algerian side on Wednesday 2-0 in Montpellier.

Before a capacity 30,000 crowd Brazil struggled to break through in the first half. In the second half Brazil's star players Kaka and Ronaldinho finally broke through Algeria's defence. Majcon opened scoring in the 63rd minute and Ronaldinho followed suit in the 81st.

Wednesday's match was Algeria’s fourth game against Brazil in forty-two years. Three of the matches were friendlies, while one came in the final stages of the Mexico World Cup in 1986. Algeria lost the first match, played in Oran on June 18th 1965, 0-3. The Algerians lost the second 0-1 on June 3rd 1973 and the third 0-1 on June 6th 1986 in the Mexico World Cup.

Brazil's coach, Carlos Dunga, picked a full line-up for the match. "It’s a very important match in the run-up to our other meetings. We’ll be taking it very seriously," he said at a recent press conference in Rio de Janeiro after highlighting his surprise at Algeria’s strong performance during their most recent friendly against Argentina, which the North Africans lost 3-4. "I watched that match and saw strong players who knew how to stand up to Argentina. I was taken aback by their performance. The Algerians are technically strong," he said.

Ronaldinho, the Brazilian star who plays for FC Barcelona, said of the Algerian eleven that they are "a technical team who play good football. Most of their players play in European leagues, which proves they’re of a high standard."

"We played some nice football," Reuters quoted Algeria's Karim Ziani as saying. "We don't have to be ashamed… We have to keep on improving so that we can become competitive in Africa," he added.

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