Previous appearances in finals: (15) 1968, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013. Best performance: Winners 1990 Drawn in Group C with Ghana, Senegal and South Africa. Coach: Christian Gourcuff The long-standing coach of FC Lorient is again on a foreign adventure and achieved an initial objective of Nations Cup qualification. The 59-year-old Frenchman had been lined up before last year's World Cup in Brazil to take over from Vahid Halilhodzic, who had a testy relationship with his Algerian employers. Gourcuff has coached Lorient for 25 years over three spells, the most recent being from 2003 to 2014. He has built a reputation in Ligue 1 as a shrewd tactician and promoter of young talent. He has also previously coached in Qatar while as a player had brief spells in Switzerland and Canada. Key player: Yacine Brahimi. Age: 24. Midfielder. Paris-born midfielder, who was a junior at Paris St Germain and later played first team football for Stade Rennes while also winning junior caps for France. It was only after his move to Spain in 2012, when he went to Granada, that Brahimi began to live up to his teenage promise. He had an outstanding World Cup in Brazil as the creative force in the Algerian midfield, having switched his international allegiance to the country of his parents in 2013. Shortly after the World Cup, Porto paid 6.5 million euros for Brahimi, handing him a five-year contract in the process. Fifa world ranking January 2015: 18 How they qualified: Top place team in Group B, ahead of Mali, Malawi and Ethiopia. Squad Goalkeepers: Azzedine Doukha (JS Kabylie), Rais Mbolhi (Philadelphia Union), Mohamed Lamine Zemmamouche (USM Alger) Defenders: Madjid Bougherra (Foujairah), Liassine Cadamuro (Osasuna), Faouzi Ghoulam (Naples), Rafik Halliche (Qatar SC), Aissa Mandi (Stade de Reims), Carl Medjani (Trabzonspor), Djamel Mesbah (Sampdoria), Medhi Zeffane (Olympique Lyon) Midfielders: Nabil Bentaleb (Tottenham Hotspur), Yacine Brahimi (FC Porto), Abdelmoumene Djabou (Club Africain), Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia), Foued Kadir (Real Betis), Ahmed Kashi (Metz), Mehdi Lacen (Getafe), Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City), Saphir Taider (Sassuolo) Forwards: Ishak Belfodil (Parma), Islam Slimani (Sporting), El Arabi Soudani (Dinamo Zagreb) (For more sports news andupdates, followAhramOnlineSports on Twitter at@AO_Sportsand onFacebookatAhramOnlineSports.) http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/120000.aspx
