Overview
Jordan and Algeria will face off at San Francisco Bay Stadium in a context where both need a positive result to nurture hopes of advancing in Group J.
In the opening match, Jordan caused many difficulties for Austria for most of the match time. The West Asian representative played very hard and equalized thanks to Ali Olwan after Romano Schmid opened the score for Austria. However, Yazan Al Arab's own goal and Marko Arnautovic's penalty goal in the final minutes caused Jordan to lose 1-3.
Meanwhile, Algeria faced a bigger challenge when facing defending champion Argentina. The North African team could not stop Lionel Messi's excellent performance and accepted a 0-3 defeat.
This is also Algeria's biggest defeat at the World Cup, equaling the 0-3 defeat to Spain 40 years ago.
However, Vladimir Petkovic's team still has positive points to cling to. Defender Aissa Mandi became the first African player to complete 100 or more passes in a World Cup match since the data was recorded in 1966. This center-back successfully made 100 out of 105 passes, reaching an accuracy rate of 95.2%.
In attack, Fares Chaibi also left a significant mark. This winger was present in 4/7 shots of Algeria against Argentina, with three shots and one assist.
Algeria will expect factors like Chaibi to continue to shine to maintain the unbeaten record of 2 opening matches at a World Cup.
On the other side, Jordan places high hopes on Ali Olwan. The goal against Austria is the eighth goal of this striker in the last 10 appearances for the national team, 6 more goals than any teammate in the same period.
Jordan's performance against Austria also brought many optimistic signals. Jamal Sellami's team won 52.7% of tackles, had higher passing accuracy in the attacking area than the opponent and had the same number of shots and shots on target as Austria.
Notably, Jordan successfully dribbled 15 times against Austria, the best performance of a team in their World Cup debut since Ivory Coast in 2006.
Although they have shown commendable fighting spirit, Jordan understands that points are the most important thing. With still having to face Argentina in the final match, the confrontation with Algeria is of particular significance in the race for a ticket to the next round.
Head-to-head record
This will be the fourth encounter in history between Jordan and Algeria, and also the first time the two teams have met since the friendly match in May 2004.
In the most recent confrontation at Annaba, the two teams drew 1-1. Mahmoud Shelbaieh put Jordan ahead in the first half before Abdelmalek Cherrad scored the equalizer for Algeria in the 60th minute.
Score prediction: Jordan 0-1 Algeria
The match between Jordan and Algeria takes place at 10:00 AM on June 23rd (Vietnam time).
