BBC Sport Online: Football: Africa

Algeria name French dozen for Morocco

Coach Abdelhamid Kermali has included midfielders Yacine Bezzaz of CS Constatine, and the 25-year-old Nacer Ouaddah from Niort for their first caps.

Ouaddah has caught the attention of the Algerian football authorities because of his recent exploits with his French second division side.

Coach Kermali has also made some changes among the home-based players, dropping five of them to make space for seven foreign-based stars, who did not play against Senegal two weeks ago.

Ali Benarbia of Paris Saint-Germain and the other selected France-based Algerians include Rafik Saifi, who has not played for Algeria since last summer.

Midfielder Billal Dziri will be missing from the 24-man squad due to an injury, which reports say will keep out of action for six months.

Algeria's hopes of qualifying for next year's World Cup finals faded after a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Senegal in Dakar on Saturday, 21 April.

The former African champions have four points and are second from bottom in Group C, which is jointly headed by Senegal and Morocco.

The Senegalese Lions, who also travel to Egypt on the same weekend (of 4 May) for their decisive game against the Pharaohs are leading on goal difference, but tied with the Moroccans on nine points.