Algeria beats Jordan 2-1 to keep World Cup 2026 hopes alive

Amine Gouiri ended the wait in the 82nd minute, stabbing in a close-range rebound after another Algeria corner and a VAR review for possible offside. That finish completed a 2-1 comeback over Jordan at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium and kept Algeria alive in the race to reach the next round of World Cup 2026.

Algeria had trailed since the 36th minute, when Nizar Al Rashdan put Jordan ahead and briefly put the tournament debutants on course for a statement result. The response came through set pieces and persistence. Nadhir Benbouali levelled in the 69th minute with a header from a Riyad Mahrez corner, turning a flat chase into a match Algeria believed it could still win. From there, the pressure kept building until Gouiri arrived to finish the job after the ball broke loose in the area.

The result gave Algeria its first victory of World Cup 2026 and eliminated Jordan with one match still to play. It also confirmed Argentina as winners of Group J, leaving the standings settled at the top while Algeria stayed in contention below them. The match, played on 22 June 2026 in the San Francisco Bay Area, ended with Algeria clearly on top in possession and attacking volume, a late surge that reflected the shift in mood on the field from urgency to conviction.

For Algeria, the win carried more than three points. The national team had gone into the game with only one World Cup clean sheet in its previous 15 matches, the 0-0 draw against England in 2010, a record that underlined how fragile its tournament profile had often been. Against Jordan, Algeria did not need a shutout to survive. It needed a comeback, and Gouiri delivered the moment that changed the entire direction of its campaign.