Algeria qualify for the World Cup with win over Somalia

CAPE TOWN :Algeria added their name to the list of World Cup qualifiers on Thursday, the fourth African team to book a berth at next year’s finals in North America, after a comfortable 3-0 win over Somalia.

Mohamed Amoura netted twice – taking his goals tally in the qualifying campaign to eight – while captain Riyad Mahrez also scored.

Victory for Algeria advanced them to an unassailable 22 points with one match still to play in Group G. It will be their fifth World Cup finals appearance but first since Brazil in 2014.

The top team in each of the nine African groups qualifies automatically for the finals in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., and Algeria join the already qualified Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

Amoura handed Algeria a seventh-minute lead when Mahrez’s cross was missed by striker Baghdad Bounedjah but found the Bundesliga-based forward unmarked at the back post to convert.

Mahrez then doubled the lead 12 minutes later with Amoura scoring his second, again from a Mahrez cross, in the 57th minute.

The fixture was a home game for Somalia, but because they do not have a suitable venue for international matches, it was hosted in Oran, handing Algeria the chance to celebrate qualification in front of a packed house at Stade Miloud Hadefi.

UGANDA MOVE CLEAR IN SECOND SPOT

Uganda consolidated second spot in the group with a 1-0 victory in Botswana as Jude Ssemugabi netted early in the second half at Francistown.

They had been ahead of Mozambique on goal difference but are now three points clear after the Mozambicans lost at home to Guinea, for whom teenage striker Abdoul Karim Traore netted twice in their 2-1 win.

The 18-year-old opened the scoring in the second minute in Maputo and slammed home the winner in the 59th minute.

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