The Algeria national football team, nicknamed Les Fennecs (The Desert Foxes), is the national team of Algeria and is controlled by the Fédération Algérienne de Football. Algeria managed to qualify to two consecutive World Cups in 1982 and 1986. Algeria also won the Africa Cup of Nations once in 1990 when they hosted the tournament. In November 2009, Algeria beat North African rivals Egypt in a World Cup qualification tiebreaker to secure a place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. On 11 October 2008, Algeria returned to the top 20 African teams by finishing first in their group ahead of Senegal, Gambia, and Liberia for the second round on the combined 2010 World Cup and 2010 African Cup of Nations qualifications.

In the third and final round of the qualifiers, Algeria was joined by Zambia, Rwanda, and Egypt. In July 2009, Algeria made their return amongst the world's top fifty after a 3–1 win against the double African champions Egypt and a 2–0 away win against Zambia. Beating Zambia in Blida 1–0 followed by a 3–1 win against Rwanda, Algeria ensured that the qualification for the World Cup would go down to the wire with a final encounter against Egypt in Cairo, where nothing less than a loss by three goals would stop the Fennecs from going to South Africa. Prior to the game the Algerian team bus was attacked by violent hooligans leaving several team members injured. This led to a diplomatic row between the two countries, which resulted in Algeria halting gas exports to Egypt. Algeria unsurprisingly lost the game 2-0. Algeria won the resulting play off in Sudan 1-0. Algeria moved to the 29th position in FIFA ranking – one place behind Egypt in the October 2009 ranking. In November 2009, they beat fierce rivals Egypt in a playoff 2010 World Cup in South Africa and moved to the highest FIFA ranking ever reached by Algeria (26) in December 2009.[1][2] They were drawn in Group C, where they will face England, the United States, and Slovenia [edit]Africa Cup of Nations 2010 The team put on a mixed performance in the tournament. Being drawn in Group A, with Angola, Malawi and Mali, Algeria started poorly by losing 3-0 to group outsiders Malawi. However, they improved in the following game against Mali, beating them 1-0 thanks to a Rafik Halliche header. In the last match, they drew 0-0 with Angola, which sent them to the second round, finishing with the same amount of points as Mali, but with a superior head-to-head record. Playing in Cabinda, Algeria faced Côte d'Ivoire in the quarterfinals, who were considered heavy favourites to qualify. But they got a historic win. After trailing 1-0, Karim Matmour equalized, but Keita gave the Ivorians the lead in the 89th minute, a goal which seemed sure to seal their victory. However, the Algerians equalized with Madjid Bougherra just 2 minutes later in added time, and Hameur Bouazza gave the Fennecs the lead in extra time. Algeria faced Egypt in the semi finals, Egypt, in their first meeting since theWorld Cup qualification play-off. Egypt won 4-0 which was the biggest defeat in the history of both teams meetings. Algeria lost 1-0 to Nigeria in the 3rd place game and finished fourth in the competition..