Ben Lyttleton / 16 November 2009 Free Bet

"Egypt will be priced at around [1.9] to qualify and go into the play-off on a high. Algeria need to postively channel their sense of grievance if they are to have any hope of winning. They are around [3.5] to reach South Africa."

If the European World Cup play-offs this weekend were notable for their tension, with no more than a single goal separating each of the four games, the drama came straight out of Africa.

Cameroon won 2-0 in Morocco to complete an unlikely reverse from bottom to top of their group since the appointment of Paul le Guen as coach. Nigeria needed a late winner from Obafemi Martins to beat Kenya 3-2 and got an unlikely helping hand from Mozambique, who beat group winners Tunisia 1-0.

But the most interesting, and amazing, outcome was in Cairo, where Egypt needed to beat their fierce rivals Algeria by more than two goals to overtake them at the top of Group 3. Anything less than a two-goal margin, and Algeria would be on their way to South Africa.

The rivalry between the two sides has been simmering for 20 years, when Egypt pipped Algeria to the 1990 World Cup but the animosity was so great that Egypt refused to send a team to the African Nations Cup hosted in Algeria two years later.

There was controversy before this match too: three Algerian players walked into their hotel lobby with blood pouring from their heads after claiming their bus had been attacked by Egyptian fans. They asked Fifa to postpone the game. The Egyptian FA claimed their injuries were a hoax and insisted the game go ahead. Fifa sided with the hosts.

In front of 75,000 fans, Egypt took an early lead through Amr Zaki after Mohamed Aboutrika¹s free-kick had come back off a post, but Algeria, boosted by the presence of Nadr Belhadj and Karim Ziani, both beneficiaries of Fifa's new rule allowing former Under-21 internationals of one country to represent another nation with no age limit ­ looked like holding on. Until, that is, the 95th minute, when substitute Emad Moteab, back from a four-month injury lay-off, headed in to make it 2-0 and force a one-match play-off in Sudan on Wednesday.

Egypt will be priced at around [1.9] to qualify and go into the game, rightly, on a high from that late goal. They could even have scored another before the final whistle, but Mohamed Barakat's header just went over the crossbar.

Algeria midfielder Khaled Lemmouchia has claimed the game should have been called off. "Allowing this game to go ahead was reckless," he said on Monday. "Some players were pale, others were practically paralysed before the game."

Algeria will have to generate their sense of grievance positively if they are to have any hope of a winning performance on Wednesday. They are around [3.5] to reach South Africa.

Amidst all the drama, though, one fact remains strangely unanswered. Egypt are the current African champions, indeed they have won the last two African Nations tournaments (most recently in Ghana). So if this team is the best that the World Cup's host continent has to offer, why, firstly, are they struggling so much to qualify now and secondly, have not appeared at a World Cup finals since 1990?

One possible suggestion is that this is a superb tournament team but struggle with the disparate nature of a qualifying campaign. But in coach Hassan Shehata, they have a man capable of fostering a team spirit for a one-off game, while Mohamed Aboutrika has to be one of the world's best players not plying his trade in Europe. The World Cup would be poorer without his presence.

As for Algeria's complaints, they may well continue after Wednesday's game; after all, Sudan has such a good relationship with Egypt that it will feel like another home game for them. Egyptians do not need visas to get into Sudan, unlike Algerians, while there are already 120,000 Egyptians living there. Another home game, with the momentum behind them, may all be reflected in Egypt's price, but you sense the African champions are closing in on a place at the first African World Cup.