Omdurman, Sudan - A former French youth international who plays his club football in Germany on Wednesday became the hero for Algeria as he scored the goal that took the Desert Foxes to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa with a 1-0 victory over Egypt. French-born Anthar Yahia scored from an acute angle five minutes before the break to give Algeria the victory in the Sudanese city of Omdurman in a play-off made necessary after Egypt had beaten their North African rivals 2-0 to pull level with them on points as well as goals scored and conceded at the top of Group C of the African qualifiers.
It is the first time since 1986 that Algeria have qualified for the finals.
In Omdurman, Egypt had more of the early game, without creating any pressing chances.
Instead it was Algeria who could have taken the lead 15 minutes into the game when a Karim Ziani free-kick into the area came to Yahia, who blasted the ball goalwards, only to find Essam El Hadary pull off a fantastic save.
Mohamed Aboutrika nearly equalized matters on the half hour, but his shot, after Emad Meteab pulled a cross back for the Al-Ahly striker, went wide.
Algeria finally achieved the breakthrough five minutes from the break when Yahia ran onto a speculative shot into the Egyptian area and unleashed a powerful shot from an acute angle that El Hadary could do nothing about.
Rafik Saifi had a glorious opportunity to give his side a two-goal lead on the hour when he had virtually a free header but aimed the ball straight at El Hadary.
Practically from the same move Mohamed Zidan set up Meteab but his shot from close range was well saved by Lounes Gaouaoui.
Egypt then threw more men forward in search of an equalizer, but unlike in Cairo, where they snatched a dramatic second goal that took them to the play-offs in the fifth minute of injury time, there was no late drama this time around.
