Both teams reached the 2010 World Cup finals through a play-off: Algeria beating Egypt and Slovenia getting the better of Russia.

Within three minutes, Algeria's Nadir Belhadj made his presence known with a free-kick that stung the palms of Samir Handanovic.

Other than that, considering one of these teams had the chance to go top of Group C neither showed the authority or imagination to do so.

Rafik Halliche's header, from a corner, was the only other real goalmouth incident of the first-half.

Slovenia didn't even earn a corner, until five minutes before the break. Valter Birsa then earned another, a couple of minutes later; Faouzi Chaouchi made the save look spectacular but the shot, although high, was straight at him.

Half-time: 0:0

Slovenia showed a little more conviction going forward early in the second-half; Matjaž Kek then deciding that perhaps things would work better with Zlatan Ljubijankic up front instead of Zlatko Dedic.

Twenty minutes before the end, Algeria tried to put their mark on the game; substitute Abdelkader Ghezzal twice getting close - but still not close enough.

As Ghezzal stupidly earned a yellow card for shirt-pulling, shortly after coming on, a deliberate hand-ball in the Slovakia area in the 73rd minute reduced Algeria to ten men.

Just when it seemed like Slovenia didn't have a clue how to make the best of their man advantage, Robert Koren turned on the edge of the Algeria penalty area and his low shot bounced over the open-to-collect arms of Faouzi Chaouchi.

Slovenia probably didn't deserve to win the match but the uninspiring victory does put them top of the table.

Algeria 0 Slovenia 1