Everyone will say this was a classic. They are not wrong. But they might miss what made it strange.
Algeria drew 3-3 with Austria at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on June 28, 2026, in their Group J finale at the 2026 World Cup. Marko Arnautovic scored in the 28th minute, Rafik Belghali levelled on the stroke of half-time, Marcel Sabitzer put Austria back in front in the 55th, Riyad Mahrez equalised in the 60th, then Mahrez struck again in the 90th+3rd minute to seemingly win it before Sasa Kalajdzic headed in from Michael Gregoritsch’s cross in the 90th+6th to make it 3-3. Both teams advance. Iran go home. The crowd of 69,045 got everything they came for and then some.
Mahrez scored twice, both assisted by Houssem Aouar. Algeria had 65 percent possession and an xG of 1.67. Austria finished with 1.49 xG from just 35 percent of the ball. Both sides created three big chances each and converted all three. On the numbers, this was as even as football gets. On the pitch, it felt nothing like it.
Austria started the sharper of the two sides, pressing high and forcing Algeria into mistakes they would not make later in the game. David Alaba, deep in his own half, spotted Arnautovic’s run and played a long ball forward that dropped perfectly into the Austrian striker’s path. Eight yards from goal, Arnautovic took one touch and drove it low to the right of Oussama Benbot. It was the finish of a man who knew exactly what he was doing the moment the ball left Alaba’s foot. Arnautovic had also been booked in the 11th minute for a foul on Aissa Mandi, so that early yellow card hung over him for the rest of his afternoon.
Algeria were not rattled. They kept the ball, pushed Fares Chaibi into threatening positions, and on the 40th minute Chaibi hit the post with a driven left-foot effort from 24 yards. That was the warning. Five minutes later came the goal.
Phillipp Mwene got his body across Mahrez near the corner flag and both men went down in a tangle. Before Mwene could recover, Belghali had collected possession on the right side. He drove to the byline, cut inside off his right foot to his left, and fired into the near post of Alexander Schlager from 12 yards. Not the finish you expect from a right-back. Half-time, 1-1.
Austria made three changes at the interval, bringing on Gregoritsch, Paul Wanner, and Florian Grillitsch. Within ten minutes they were back in front. Konrad Laimer drove down the right and pulled the ball back to Marcel Sabitzer arriving at the edge of the box. Sabitzer hit it first time, high to the right corner, and Schlager had his team ahead again at 55 minutes.
Five minutes.
That is how long the lead lasted. Aouar pressed and harried on the left, won the ball back, and fed Mahrez in the centre of the box. Mahrez turned and curled it into the top right with his left foot. The ground was electric. At 2-2 with half an hour to go, both sides had enough to advance, and the game entered a curious middle phase where neither team quite pushed for three. Algeria held the ball. Austria sat off. For twenty minutes, Arrowhead was frantic in the stands and frustratingly quiet on the pitch.
Then everything changed.
In the third minute of added time, Aouar threaded a through ball into the right channel and Mahrez ran onto it, cut inside, and rolled a right-footed shot into the bottom left corner past Schlager. Algeria 3-2. The bench erupted. Aouar had set up both Mahrez goals and now had two assists in the game. Algeria were on the verge of finishing second in the group, heading to face Spain rather than Switzerland.
Kalajdzic came on in the 90th+5th minute, all six-foot-seven of him, and touched the ball once. Gregoritsch whipped a cross from the right, Kalajdzic met it at the near post, and nodded it back across goal into the bottom right. Austria had scored three goals in the final 15 minutes of the second half across their three group games. No other team at this 2026 World Cup had managed as many.
Truth is, neither team fully deserved to go through on the basis of their group stage, and both of them did enough in this one match to justify it anyway. Algeria lost 3-0 to Argentina in their opener and picked themselves up to produce this. Austria conceded a 90th-minute equaliser to Algeria’s main rival while finishing second in the group. Football does not always hand you a clean story.
Somewhere in the stands of Arrowhead, every Iranian supporter watched Kalajdzic’s header go in and understood immediately. A win for either team would have eliminated their side. A draw meant they both went through. That is the cruel arithmetic of the group stage — and not one player from Austria or Algeria will lose a second of sleep over it.