Patience Victorious

Before Algeria's first match at this World Cup, pundits were saying how, if Algeria goes more than 36 minutes in this tie without scoring, they would beat the record for most consecutive minutes by a football national team without scoring at World Cups.

Either with that in mind, or perhaps just lucky, Algeria showed some serious balls at the start of the match. They were going forward with purpose, and then they got a (correct) PK.
Valencia's Sofiane Feghouli made it count, in the 25th minute. And, with 11 minutes to spare, the Algerians broke free from the spell of the curse that could have taken hold of their campaign (if they were to have broken that negative record).

But after that Algeria was content to just defend and showed very little else in attack.

The Belgians kept coming, but their attacks were quite sterile too.

Coach Marc Wilmots was very inspired on this day, though, and he made two substitutions that would each pay off, big-time. First, at half time, he introduced Mertens in Chadli's place. Then, in minute 65, he substituted Dembele with Fellaini. Not even five minutes later, Fellaini tied it all up with an unblockable header that even unbeatable-till-then M'Bolhi could do nothing to block.
M'Bolhi, who really played well in this match, was unable to parry Mertens powerful shot either, on the counter-attack, ten minutes later.

And thus, clear favourites Belgium, from this group of life (as opposed to "group of death", which so many commentators like to call so many difficult-to-navigate groups in so many tournaments), started on the right foot, but not without serious problems.

So many European teams are having serious problems performing at their best at this World Cup. Belgium included.
Undoubtedly, a most powerful factor in their deficient performance must be, like I previously stated here, the weather conditions in which matches are played in Brazil, at this tournament, and during which absolutely no consideration was given for the civilized way to play matches.
It is to be added that FIFA also officially forbade stopping matches for re-hydration / cooling-off breaks, during the Brazilian World Cup, on top of everything.
Why? Why would they even go against that, too?
Who could be behind this whole thing?
(Or what? Money??... We'll probably never know for sure, or if we do it won't matter much at all when we do.)

Highlights:

Belgium vs Algeria 2-1 -- All Goals...

2013.01.30 - The Results

SPAIN: Copa del Rey (Semifinal, leg 1)

21:00 -- Real Madrid - Barcelona 1-1     highlights
[0-1]  50' Cesc Fabregas
[1-1]  81' Raphael Varane



PORTUGAL: Taca de Portugal (Semifinal, leg 1)

21:00 -- Pacos de Ferreira - Benfica 0-2     highlights
58' Lima
75' Ola John



AFRICA NATIONS CUP: Group D, Matchday 3

18:00 -- Algeria - Ivory Coast 2-2     highlights
[1-0]  64' Sofiane Feghouli (pen.)
[2-0]  70' El Arbi Soudani
[2-1]  77' Didier Drogba
[2-2]  81' Wilfried Bony
18:00 -- Togo - Tunisia 1-1     highlights
[1-0]  13' Serge Gakpe
[1-1]  30' Khaled Mouelhi (pen.)

Final standings:
1 Ivory Coast  3 2 1 0 7-3 +4  7p
2 Togo  3 1 1 1 4-3 +1  4p
3 Tunisia  3 1 1 1 2-4 -2  4p
4 Algeria  3 0 1 2 2-5 -3  1p



NETHERLANDS: KNVB Beker (Quarter-Finals)

18:45 -- Zwolle - Heracles Almelo 3-2
[0-1]  9' Marko Vejinovic
[1-1]  16' Arne Slot
[2-1]  44' Fred Benson
[3-1]  58' Jesper Drost
[3-2]  65' Everton
20:45 -- PSV - Feyenoord 2-1     highlights
[1-0]  20' Dries Mertens
[1-1]  29' Graziano Pelle
[2-1]  78' Mark van Bommel

2013.01.26 - The Results

PORTUGAL: Primeira Liga

21:15 -- Braga - Benfica 1-2     highlights
[0-1]  5' Eduardo Salvio
[0-2]  35' Lima
[1-2]  77' Joao Pedro

Current standings:
1 Benfica  16 13 3 0 41-12 +29  42p
2 Porto  15 12 3 0 35-8 +27  39p
3 Braga  16 9 2 5 35-21 +14  29p
4 Pacos de Ferreira  15 6 7 2 17-12 +5  25p
5 Rio Ave  15 6 3 6 18-20 -2  21p



AFRICA NATIONS CUP: Group D, Matchday 2

16:00 -- Ivory Coast - Tunisia 3-0     highlights
21' Gervinho
87' Yaya Toure
90' Didier Ya Konan
19:00 -- Algeria - Togo 0-2     highlights
31' Emmanuel Adebayor
90' + 3' Dove Wome

Current standings:
1 Ivory Coast  2 2 0 0 5-1 +4  6p
2 Togo  2 1 0 1 3-2 +1  3p
3 Tunisia  2 1 0 1 1-3 -2  3p
4 Algeria  2 0 0 2 0-3 -3  0p



NETHERLANDS: Eredivisie

18:45 -- Zwolle - Heerenveen 1-1 (0-0)
19:45 -- ADO Den Haag - Roda 2-2 (1-1)
19:45 -- Waalwijk - NAC Breda 0-4 (0-0)
20:45 -- Heracles Almelo - PSV 1-5     highlights
[0-1]  23' Tim Matavz
[0-2]  35' Jeremain Lens
[1-2]  62' Everton
[1-3]  66' Georginio Wijnaldum
[1-4]  72' Dries Mertens
[1-5]  76' Georginio Wijnaldum

Current standings:
1 PSV  20 14 1 5 66-22 +44  43p
2 Twente  19 12 5 2 35-14 +21  41p
3 Ajax  19 11 7 1 45-20 +25  40p



FRANCE: Ligue 1

17:00 -- Rennes - Marseille 2-2     highlights
[0-1]  38' Andre Ayew
[1-1]  59' Kevin Theophile Catherine
[1-2]  83' Jordan Ayew
[2-2]  88' Romain Alessandrini
20:00 -- Evian - Ajaccio 1-1 (0-1)
20:00 -- Montpellier - Sochaux 2-0 (2-0)
20:00 -- Nancy - Lorient 2-1 (1-0)
20:00 -- Reims - Toulouse 1-1 (0-0)
20:00 -- Troyes - Brest 2-1 (1-0)

Current standings:
1 Lyon  22 13 6 3 37-18 +19  45p
2 PSG  21 12 6 3 37-12 +25  42p
3 Marseille  22 13 3 6 30-27 +3  42p
4 Rennes  22 11 3 8 33-28 +5  36p
5 Nice  21 9 8 4 33-26 +7  35p



TURKEY: Super Lig

12:30 -- Buyuksehir - Bursaspor 4-1 (2-0)
15:00 -- Genclerbirligi - Belediyespor 1-0 (1-0)
18:00 -- Gaziantepspor - Fenerbahce 1-2
[1-0]  42' Darvydas Sernas
[1-1]  65' Moussa Sow
[1-2]  83' Semih Senturk

Current standings:
1 Galatasaray  18 9 6 3 35-22 +13  33p
2 Besiktas  18 8 7 3 40-27 +13  31p
3 Fenerbahce  19 8 7 4 29-22 +7  31p

2013.01.22 - The Results

AFRICA NATIONS CUP: Group D, Matchday 1

16:00 -- Ivory Coast - Togo 2-1     highlights
[1-0]  8' Yaya Toure
[1-1]  45' + 2' Jonathan Ayite
[2-1]  88' Gervinho
19:00 -- Tunisia - Algeria 1-0     highlights
90' + 1' Youssef Msakni

Current standings:
1 Ivory Coast  1 1 0 0 2-1 +1  3p
2 Tunisia  1 1 0 0 1-0 +1  3p
3 Togo  1 0 0 1 1-2 -1  0p
4 Algeria  1 0 0 1 0-1 -1  0p



ITALY: Coppa Italia (Semifinal, leg 1)

20:45 -- Juventus - Lazio 1-1     highlights
[1-0]  63' Federico Peluso
[1-1]  86' Stefano Mauri