By James Copnall BBC Sport

Getting to the World Cup finals was a huge achievement for Algeria

Algeria's World Cup qualification underlined a surprising renaissance from a country that was once one of the great powers of African football.

You have to go back to 1990 for Algeria's one Nations Cup win, and to the previous decade for the country's two World Cup participations.

So Antar Yahia's thunderous winner in the playoff against Egypt sparked epic Algerian celebrations.

It also illustrated a startling truth about this team.

The crucial goal came from the right back - an indication that this side attacks from all over the pitch.

Yahia was his team's joint top scorer in qualifying, alongside the midfielder Karim Ziani, and the veteran striker Rafik Saifi.

But the fact that no-one on the Algerian squad managed more than three goals, in 13 qualifying games, reveals that the side lacks a top class goal-scorer.

The Fennecs (a sort of desert fox) managed only 19 goals in those games, and will be tested by tougher defences in South Africa.

Veteran coach Rabah Saadane lead his nation to the World Cup in 1986 and will undoubtedly be scouring Europe for strikers with Algerian links.

Already many of the squad are French-born players with dual nationality, like Ziani, and defenders Nadir Belhadj, Majid Bouherra and Yahia.

The squad is effective in defence and solid in midfield but unless a top class striker can be found, they will surely struggle.

Algerian fans are ecstatic they are back at the World Cup, and won't have too many unrealistic expectations.

After all, they lost to Gambia and could only draw with Liberia in this qualifying campaign.

But the resurgence of Algerian football, capped off by the World Cup qualification, has made millions of Algerians very happy indeed.

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