Two goals in 10 second-half minutes by substitutes Marouane Fellaini and Dries Mertens gave Belgium a 2-1 comeback victory over Algeria after the north Africans had threatened a shock result in their World Cup Group H match.

Algeria had not scored in more than eight hours of World Cup tournament play dating back to 1986, but ended that streak with a Sofiane Feghouli penalty after 25 minutes, awarded when he was clumsily pulled back by Jan Vertonghen.

Belgium were rated fifth-favourites to win the World Cup but struggled to make an impact until Kevin De Bruyne picked out Fellaini, on as a substitute four minutes earlier, to cleverly head in from 13 metres after 70 minutes.

Yet another World Cup comeback was completed 10 minutes later when fellow sub Mertens lashed in the second from a tight angle to put Belgium top of a group also containing Russia and South Korea, who meet later today.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.