Cote d'Ivoire have admitted they need a "miracle" if they are to escape Group G and join Ghana in the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and so will be calling on divine intervention when they tackle North Korea in Nelspruit on Friday.
The Elephants need to make up a nine-goal swing on Portugal, who play Brazil in Durban on the same day.
To do that, they will require something close to a repeat of the 7-0 hammering the Portuguese handed out to the Koreans in their last game, and then hope that Brazil do them a favour by beating Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates by three clear goals.
Both results are a tall order, especially as the Koreans are not likely to be as naïve in defence as they were in the rain of Cape Town on Monday, while Portugal have yet to concede a goal and look solid at the back.
Ivorian defender Arthur Boka says he and his side have not given up hope, but they will need something extraordinary to make it happen.
"If we win this match maybe a miracle can happen – only God knows," said Boka. "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."
The problem for Sven-Goran Eriksson is that his star man, Didier Drogba, is still not 100 percent fit after suffering a fractured arm in a World Cup warm-up against Japan, depriving the side of their best source of goals.
He is likely to play, as he did against Brazil last Sunday, but his mobility will be once again limited.
"Didier is our captain and a massive influence on the side and it was a big disappointment with his injury," defender Souleymane Bamba told the Daily Record.
"We can tell he is still not 100 per cent fit. We can see he is not going into challenges as strongly now because he's scared to feel his arm again but his goal against Brazil will give him confidence.
"We can still make the last 16. After all, I didn't think England were going to draw their first two matches so anything is possible."
Should the Ivorians exit, they will no doubt look back at the 0-0 draw with Portugal in their opening game and wonder what might have been, having dominated possession for large parts of that game and missed a number of chances.
