BENGUELA, Angola: Thursday’s two Africa Cup of Nations semi-final matches see two great rivalries in African football being repeated.

In the day’s early match, West African footballing powerhouses Nigeria and Ghana face each other in the Angolan capital, Luanda, in the 11 de Novembro Stadium while Algeria face Egypt in the Ombaka Stadium in Benguela in the later game.

The two losers of the semifinal matches will contest the third-place play-off in Benguela Saturday while the winners play the final in Luanda Sunday.

The rivalry between Algeria and Egypt is unparalleled in African football and just more than two months ago drew worldwide attention when the two countries faced each other in their final World Cup qualifier.

Several Algerian players were injured when stones were thrown at their team bus on the way to the hotel. Egypt won the game 2-0, forcing a play-off in Sudan, which Algeria won 1-0 to qualify for the World Cup finals.

In the fighting that followed the game, 24 Egyptians were injured in Algeria while more than 2,000 Egyptians protested in front of the Algerian embassy in Cairo.

At the moment, there are only a handful of supporters of the teams in Angola, but media reports in both countries have said that several hundred are preparing to make the trip south to attend the match.

Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan said after his side had qualified for the semifinal with a 3-1 defeat of Cameroon that the game was unlike any other in the world.

“It is a matter of life and death,” he said. “It is like a war for both teams, and for us, it is a chance to show that we are the better side and deserve to be at the World Cup.”

Algerian coach Saadane Rabah, whose side caused an upset in the quarterfinals by beating one of the pre-tournament favorites, Ivory Coast, 3-2 in extra time, has tried to downplay the rivalry.

“The match is only allowed to be sport, nothing else,” he said.

Organizers said they were treating the game like any other without special security arrangements, but Angolan officials are said to have increased the presence of security personnel in Benguela.

Both coaches were expected to field unchanged teams.

While the rivalry in the other match fails to evoke the same intensity, it still sees two great African footballing nations face off.

Neither Ghana nor Nigeria have been particularly impressive during the tournament so far, and the Super Eagles needed a penalty shootout to advance 5-4 at the expense of Zambia, who would have won had they converted one of their many chances.

Nigerian coach Shaibu Amodu, whose only hope of leading his side at the World Cup later this year is if he takes the team to the final, said he is not concerned about the World Cup in June and July.

“I am only concentrating on this tournament,” he said. “Whatever happens after that, we will see, but now we want to do as well as we can here in Angola.”

He will have to play against the Black Stars without Onyekachi Apam, who was sent off against Zambia.

The Nice defender could be replaced by Joseph Yobo, who has surprisingly returned to Angola after going to Europe with an injury that was to keep him out of the game for at least two weeks.

The Everton defender trained on his own earlier this week and could be thrown in at the deep end.

Ghana coach Milovan Rajevic, meanwhile, has his own injury worries with inspirational captain Michael Essien out for several weeks after injuring himself during training.

He said he would not underestimate Nigeria even though they failed to impress in the quarterfinal:

“Though they did not play so well in the game against Zambia, it will be a big mistake to conclude that they will repeat the same performance in the next game against Ghana.”

The Serbian, who saw his side knock out the hosts, Angola, 1-0 in the quarter-finals, has done remarkably well with a side that is missing a number of key players who failed to make the trip to Angola.

Whether they have enough strength to go further remains to be seen.