Algeria Beat Colombia, Gabon Shock Morocco

Algeria tonight tore apart Colombia with goals from Qatar-based striker Baghdad Bounedjah and a Riyad Mahrez brace enough to get them winning.

One-time Marseille and Leicester City transfer target Baghdad buried home the first in the fifteenth minute before Man City’s Mahrez stepped up to rub salt in the already split wound with Algeria’s second goal, five minutes from the opener.

Just before the Colombian recovered from those shocks, the North Africans and the continent’s kings were up at it again with skipper Mahrez putting gaffer Carlos Queiroz’s men to the guillotine with the game’s third in the 65^th minute.

Tonight’s meeting sure sent shivers down Colombia’s spine despite the encounter being a friendly.

Elsewhere, Guinea let their early slip off as Arturo Vidal’s penalty saved the day for Chile.

The Barcelona midfielder nabbed in the winning spot-kick goal after Diego Rubio had been outmuscled by Eintracht Frankfurt’s Simon Faelette in the box, handing Chile a 3-2 narrow win.

Guinea had raced into the lead via Ibrahima Sory Conte who plies his trade in the Bulgarian top tier. The 28-year-old converted from inside the box after receiving a pass from the left, plastering his effort past goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.

Jean David would equalise after 64 minutes ticked, tapping it home just when the Guinean goalie thought he’d cleared danger having parried away Erik Pulgar’s initial smack from the edge of the box.

Ten minutes on, Chile would turn the game on its head with Felipe Mora as the architect. The Mexico-based striker for Chile blasted in an overhead kick after new entrant Oscar Lara had overlapped and fed him with a teasing cross from right inside the box.

Tonight’s match was an exhibition for new coach Didier Six who hopes to fix the heap of a mess left behind by disgraced Belgian gaffer Paul Put, banned for extorting money from Syli Nationale players.

In another test game on the same day, Gabon made a huge statement of intent by beating Morocco 3-2 in Tanger inspired by their captain Pierre Emerick Aubameyang who later got booked in the 49^th minute for an infringement.