Ivory Coast’s players say they are hoping for a miracle when they face North Korea in their final group G match. (Ivory Coast 1/3 to win the match)
The Portuguese were highly impressive in their 7-0 thrashing of North Korea and will now face Brazil in their final game, fully aware that their superior goal difference puts them firmly in the driving seat to take second qualification spot in the group.
The Brazilians have already qualified for the knockout rounds and are likely to field an under strength team in order to rest their key players for the big matches ahead.
The Ivory Coast have so far been disappointing in the competition opening with an uninspiring performance against Portugal and then losing to Brazil in a bad tempered match which saw Kaka sent off after a seemingly innocuous clash with Abdelkader Keita.
This now leaves the Ivorians, who only have a point to their name so far in the competition, needing to beat the North Koreans by a cricket score and hoping that Brazil can pull off a shock victory to help the Mighty Elephants qualify. (Ivory Coast 16/1 to qualify)
“If we win this match maybe a miracle can happen – only God knows. We will try to win our last match and if we exit, exit with our heads held high. We must believe we can still do it.” defender Artur Boka told reporters.
The Ivorians are in the so-called Group of Death and knew when the draw was made that it would be a struggle to qualify. However, they never believed their task would be so hard and striker Gervinho readily admits that he held his head in his hands during the Portugal’s rout of the North Koreans.”
“Every five minutes when I saw another goal I thought — this is catastrophic and the end for us,” he said.
Boka told reporters that he believed that his side as well as the other African nations had been unlucky not to fulfil the high expectations placed on them ahead of the first finals played on African soil.
“There are teams which in the future will make an impression — we have shown in this competition at least that we know how to play football.”
“We have teams who play good football but found it difficult to finish,” he said, adding hope was not lost for Ghana to progress, the only team from the continent to have won a game in the competition so far.
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Ivory Coast (33/1 to win the World Cup) have been rocked by the news that star striker Didier Drogba will miss this summer’s World Cup tournament in South Africa after suffering a broken right arm in a pre-tournament friendly against Japan.
The Ivory Coast reached their first World Cup Finals in 2006 but were unfortunate to end up in a hideously tough group. They have another difficult task in South Africa but the Elephants have the potential to be Africa’s best hope.