Winning ugly is the new maxim of the Cote d'Ivoire coach Francois Zahoui, who has told his players he does not care how they beat Burkina Faso in Malabo on Thursday as long as they take all three points.

Zahoui, speaking to reporters in the Equatorial Guinea capital on Tuesday, had a warrior face on and some harsh words for his superstar squad, whom he has told to buckle down and work if they are to win the African Nations Cup title.

Zahoui feels there is a danger of the Ivorians taking their heavily-fancied status to heart and not putting in the required effort over the next weeks. They made heavy work on Sunday of their opening game win over against Sudan, in the end scraping through 1-0.

Although he did not say as much, the undertone of his mini-tirade was that many of the Ivorian players might be major stars at club level and earn millions of dollars, but playing for your country is the ultimate in football and to win the Nations Cup is a feat that takes hard work and a fair amount of sacrifice. He has obviously had enough moaning from pampered players who are finding conditions in Equatorial Guinea a far cry from the ritzy stadiums and training grounds of Europe's top clubs.

Victory for the Ivorians over neighbours Burkina Faso will virtually assure their progress to the quarter-finals.

Indeed if Angola beat Sudan in the other Group B game on the same day at the Estadio Nueva, then both Angola and the Elephants will be through with one round of matches still to come.

Burkina Faso are still smarting following their defeat to Angola on Saturday. Coach Paulo Duarte criticised the way Angola were allowed to waste time near the end to secure the result and criticised what he sees as unfair treatment of his side.

The Burkinabe can draw heart, however, from the fact they held the Ivorians to a goalless draw when the two sides met at the group stage at the last Nations Cup finals in Angola.

But it was the Ivorians who went through the group and Burkina Faso who were knocked out.