African outfits Algeria and Cape Verde will do battle in an international friendly encounter at the Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium on Thursday evening.
The teams recently oversaw successful Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaigns in their respective groups and will be full of confidence heading into this one.
Match preview
Algeria saw off the threat of the Senegalese Lions of Teranga when the sides went head-to-head at the Stade Me Abdoulaye Wade on September 12.
Fares Chaibi opened the scoring midway through the second half and that was enough to get the job done for Djamel Belmadi's men in a tight affair.
Consequently, the Fennec Foxes have now stretched their unbeaten run across all competitions to six matches since they were beaten by Senegal on penalties back in February.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing team who claimed a shock 3-2 victory in the most recent edition of this fixture five years ago.
With a heavyweight meeting against Egypt to follow Thursday's contest, the hosts will be keen to set the tone with a dominant display in front of their fans here.
Cape Verde wrapped up their AFCON qualifying campaign with a 3-2 defeat against the Sparrowhawks of Togo at Stade de Kegue on September 12.
Bubista's men raced to a two-goal lead thanks to strikes from Kevin Pina and Gilson Benchimol before an Ahoueke Denkey double and Moutalabou Ouattara's strike turned the game around.
That was a first defeat in six matches for the Blue Sharks dating back to their final African Nations Championship qualifier against Sierra Leone.
Having suffered a first away defeat of 2023 last time out, Thursday's visitors will be keen to get back to winning ways on the road in what is set to be their penultimate outing of the year.
Team News
Cape Verde's Kevin Pina opened his international account at the fifth time of asking against Togo and will be looking to pick up where he left off.
Helio Varela and Lopes Cabral are both in line to make their respective bows for the away side, having been recently handed their maiden call-ups.
Off the back of his winner against Senegal, Fares Chaibi has once again been called up for Algeria and will be aiming to further stake his claim for a place in the starting XI.
Twenty-three-year-old Mohamed Amoura has netted five times in his last six games at club level, making the striker one of keep an eye on here.
Algeria possible starting lineup:
Mandrea; Atal, Mandi, Ait Nouri, Bensebaini; Zerrouki, Feghouli, Aouar; Benrahma, Slimani, Mahrez
Cape Verde possible starting lineup:
Vozinha; Pico, Tavares, Furtado, Paulo; Monteiro, Andrade, Duarte; Mendes, Rodrigues, Semedo
We say: Algeria 3-1 Cape Verde
Algeria boast a vastly superior squad on paper and are huge favourites to get the job done on home turf. We are backing the hosts to live up to expectations and cruise to a routine win come the sound of the final whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
