Soccer-Algeria v Russia

CURITIBA, Brazil, June 23 (Reuters) - Algeria play Russia in a World Cup group H match in Curitiba on Thursday. Where: The Baixada arena, Curitiba Capacity: 39,631 When: 1700 local/1600 ET/2000 GMT Referee: TBC Probable teams: Algeria: 23-Rais Mbolhi; 2-Madjid Bougherra, 5-Rafik Halliche, 6-Djamel Mesbah, 12-Carl Medjani, 20-Aissa Mandi; 14-Nabil Bentaleb, 10-Sofiane Feghouli, 11-Yacine Brahimi; 13-Islam Slimani, 18-Abdelmoume Djabou Russia: 1-Igor Akinfeev; 22-Andrey Eshchenko, 4-Sergey Ignashevich, 14-Vasili Berezutskiy, 23-Dmitry Kombarov; 8-Denis Glushakov, 19-Alexander Samedov, 20-Victor Faizulin, 10-Alan Dzagoev; 11-Alexander Kerzhakov, 6-Maksim Kanunnikov Key stats: Appearing at their fourth World Cup, Algeria have never reached the second round. They are now second in the group with three points, ahead of Russia and South Korea who have only one point. Belgium have qualified after two straight wins. Russia, who will host the 2018 tournament, are appearing at their first World Cup for 12 years. They did not make it past the group stages in their two previous World Cups, 1994 and 2002. Algeria's fourth goal against South Korea in their Group H match in Porto Alegre on Sunday made them the highest-scoring African side in a single World Cup match. Until they scored against Belgium in their opening match, Algeria had not netted a World Cup goal for 28 years. Almost 50 years have passed since the pair's only previous meeting, a 2-2 friendly draw played out in November 1964 when Russia was part of the Soviet Union. (Writing by Keith Weir, Editing by Nigel Hunt)