Algeria v Russia, 26 June 2014

Kick-off 5.00pm local (9.00pm BST) Man of the Match: Islam Slimani (Algeria) Assistant referees: Bahattin Duran (Turkey) Tarık Ongun (Turkey) Fourth official: Joel Aguilar (El Salvador) Fifth official: Juan Zumba (El Salvador) The two teams had met in three previous matches (only involving matches during the time period of the Soviet Union). Aleksandr Kokorin opened the scoring for Russia, which had to win to have chance of qualifying for the knockout stage, in the 6th minute when he scored with a header after a cross from Dmitri Kombarov from the left. Algeria equalised in the 60th minute when Islam Slimani scored with a header at the back post after a free kick from the left by Yacine Brahimi which was missed by Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. Algeria held on for the draw, and as South Korea lost to Belgium in the other match played at the same time, Algeria finished as group runners-up and reached the second round for the first time in their history (after unsuccessful campaigns in 1982, 1986, and 2010), while Russia failed to advance out of the group stage in all three tournaments since the break-up of the Soviet Union. For Algeria's goal, television replays showed that Akinfeev had a green laser light shining in his face during the play. After the match the Algerian Football Federation was fined 50,000 CHF by FIFA for the use of laser pointers, a prohibited item in the stadium according to FIFA Stadium Safety and Security Regulations, and other violations of the rules by Algerian fans. With fellow African representative Nigeria also reaching the knockout stage earlier, this was the first time there were two teams from the Confederation of African Football in the knockout stage of a World Cup.