The players
Star man
A former France youth international whose speed makes him a natural winger, Valencia's Sofiane Feghouli has usually been deployed centrally by Algeria since pledging his international allegiance to the country in 2011. Critics insist he should score more often but his many admirers point to the number of chances that he creates for team-mates thanks to an immaculate first touch, excellent passing and knack for producing the unpredictable. Manage to stifle him and opponents will have gone a long way to neutralising Algeria.
One for the Premier League
Average in size but excellent in the air and an expert predator, the Sporting Lisbon striker Islam Slimani has already been the subject of repeated inquiries from West Ham.
The bad boy
Like a careless housekeeper, Hilal Soudani has been known to lose his rag: when he played for Guimarães in Portgual he was sent off for treading on the hand of an opponent, who got up and exacted revenge with a headbutt, and in this season's Champions League the striker, who is now on the books of Dinamo Zagreb, was sent off against Austria Vienna for berating the referee from the substitute's bench.
The weakest link
The 31-year-old former Rangers and Charlton centre-back Madjid Bougherra is an inspirational leader and formidable competitor but he is on the wane and increasingly prone to errors.
The coach
Vahid Halilhodzic, who with his shock of grey hair is akin to a demoustachioed Des Lynam, goes to his first World Cup after being sacked by Ivory Coast three months before the last one. During a nine-club, two-country career his confrontational style has led to numerous fallouts including, while in charge of Paris Saint-Germain, a two-month ban for being mean to a referee. He once accidentally shot himself in the bottom.
Tactics
For Algeria's fourth finals they have set themselves the target of progressing beyond the group stages for the first time. They are not as talented as the team who nearly achieved that feat in 1982 but at least this time they will not be thwarted by dastardly collusion between West Germany and Austria,
Halilhodzic is partial to a 4-1-4-1 formation, even more so since the France-born Nabil Bentaleb declared for Algeria, with the Tottenham Hotspur player immediately entrusted with providing midfield protection for a brittle defence marshalled by the creaking Bougherra. Two rapid wingers and the more central Feghouli are the men most likely to create chances for Slimani.
Grudge match
Meeting France, the country with which Algeria fought a ferocious war of independence, would be sure to arouse passions. The only meeting between the countries, a 2001 friendly in Paris, was abandoned owing to crowd trouble.
Holed up
Sorocaba is the eighth largest city in the state of São Paulo and was once known as "Manchester Paulista" because of the number of English-owned textile factories there. The country's media have expressed concern about the state of the road serving the team's residence, the Pitangueiras Farm Hotel, but if coaches can't handle it there are always alternatives – it is a former horse ranch, and there is still a well-stocked stable. Plus, if there aren't enough horses to go round, the squad may already contain a few donkeys. There are extreme sports available, including a zip wire and hot-air ballooning.