Internationals: Mahrez Lands In Brazil

Algeria are currently the highest placed African team in FIFA’s world rankings, one place ahead of the Ivory Coast in 22nd position, and will kick off their campaign in Group H alongside Belgium, South Korea and Russia. 

The much-fancied Belgian side will be their first opponents on Tuesday week, with any kind of result against them surely going some way towards improving Algeria’s chances of making it out of the group stages. 

Elsewhere on the international scene, Kevin Phillips temporarily came out of retirement to find the back of the net for England against a Rest of the World team in the Soccer Aid game at Old Trafford on Sunday night. 

Phillips lined up alongside some England legends and celebrities to face a Jose Mourinho-managed Rest of the World side that included stars such as Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids. 

After the visitors raced into a 2-0 lead, Phillips looked to have completed the comeback when he won and converted a penalty to make it 2-2, only for a brace from AC Milan and Holland legend Seedorf to seal a 4-2 win for the Rest of the World. 

Over in France it was an evening to forget to City skipper Wes Morgan and his Jamiaca team at Lille’s Stade Pierre-Mauroy stadium, as they slumped to an 8-0 defeat at the hands of the rampant French. 

It was the final warm-up game before the World Cup for the French, and they showed that they mean business with Yohan Cabaye, Blaise Matuidi (2), Karim Benzema (2), Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann (2) finding the back of the net.

Morgan played the full 90 minutes for the Reggae Boyz however, who were missing a number of stars for the fixture, which saw a dominant France score five times in the second half. 

Finally over in Poland, City’s 18-year-old Lithuania international striker Simonas Stankevicius featured in a narrow defeat to Poland in Gdansk. 

The Academy hitman was a late substitute for his team, who despite taking a first half lead against their more experienced host, were pegged back to a 2-1 defeat – the winner coming from Bayern Munich-bound Robert Lewandowski.