Johannesburg — Cote d'Ivoire's 3-1 loss to Brazil at Soccer City on Sunday, coupled with a 7-0 victory for Portugal over North Korea the following day, has handed The Elephants a herculean task in qualifying for the next round.
Sven-Goran Eriksson's side go into their final fixture against the Koreans needing to make up a nine-goal swing over the Portuguese, who have enough experience through their side to make life difficult for Brazil.
The match against the South Americans was expected to be a classic for Didier Drogba and co, but in the end they rather limped over the finish line, completely outplayed on the night.
"With the score at 3-1, I still felt we were in with a chance of at least drawing level but unfortunately we weren't able to get another goal," Eriksson said. "The Brazil team have a lot of quality and their players work very well in small spaces. We've had very difficult games in this first round, particularly today."
Defender Kolo Toure felt the side had wasted good opportunities earlier in the game that might have put the pressure on Brazil.
"We needed to be a bit more clinical and do a better job of finishing off some of the counter-attacks we had," Toure said. "Then they took the first chance they had and that changed everything. After the goal we changed the way we'd been playing. We can't afford to waste counter-attacks like we did today; it's unforgivable."
For his part, Drogba said his side had been too cautious, and he would have liked to see them having a go at the Brazilians from the kick-off, rather than waiting until they were three goals down.
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"It's going to be hard for us to qualify now because our fate's no longer in our hands. But I'm not sad, just a little disappointed," he said. "Our team has made progress since the last World Cup, but we could have been a bit more ambitious and tried to go for the game a bit more."
Two goals from Luis Fabiano, one tinged with controversy after he appeared to handle the ball twice in the build-up to his shot, proved the difference. It ends a barren spell for the striker and brought some relief to the Sevilla man.
"The goals finally came," he said. "I'd been playing and training hard but the goals didn't want to come. But I didn't stop trying and knew that it would happen at some point. And once you get one, others follow. I'm grateful for the faith the coach and my teammates had in me, which was vital. They knew that I was training hard, grafting away after a period on the sidelines. I'm happy about the result and the win because it was a tough game."
So the Ivorians are set to be the latest African side dumped out of the tournament when they play their final fixture on Friday in Nelspruit, but like hosts South Africa, they can at least go out with a bang, and a win over the hapless Koreans.
