We earned the qualification gift: Algeria coach

African nation makes history; reaches last 16 after drawing Russia 1-1 .

CURITIBA: Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic termed the African nation’s unprecedented qualification for the last 16 of the World Cup the result of toil and determination.

Islam Slimani headed an ecstatic Algeria past the group stages of the World Cup for the first time with the equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Russia on Thursday that dumped Fabio Capello’s team out of the tournament.

“We are very proud of what we have achieved this evening,” declared Bosnian-born Halilhodzic.

“We played a heroic match and I think our qualification was totally deserved. We have received a great gift but we went out and earned it.”

With Belgium beating South Korea to advance as Group H leaders, Algeria finished runner-ups and face former champions Germany in Porto Alegre on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Germany a work in progress, says Loew

Germany coach Joachim Loew was satisfied and relieved with his team’s 1-0 win over the US on Thursday which clinched top spot in World Cup Group G and booked a last-16 berth.

Loew pointed out, however, that Germany still had plenty of room to improve.

“There is always something to tweak, always something we can improve,” said Loew.

“I would have liked the team to be a bit more active, even though the US were defending very deep against us.”

On the other hand, the US were pleased to progress to the knockout stage from a tough group.

“Everyone said we had no chance, but we took the chance and we move on and now we really want to prove a point,” said coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo wasted a succession of glorious chances as Portugal bowed out of the World Cup on Thursday despite beating Ghana 2-1 in Brasilia.

Although Ronaldo netted his first goal of the tournament, the winner, it was his numerous misses that cost Portugal the sizeable victory they needed to make up for the 4-0 mauling they suffered by Germany in their first game.

“The match today [Thursday] was a match we tried to win and we did win,” said a disappointed Ronaldo. “We created many opportunities but we could not finish them all.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2014.

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