The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems for Cote d'Ivoire, who rather sauntered through their opening Group D clash against a fired-up Guinea at the African Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday.
If the Ivorians had displayed the same appetite and hunger for their task as their opponents, they would have given themselves much more of an opportunity to take the three points.
Instead they were forced to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw, and do so as well with 10 men after a needless red card for striker Gervinho, who until his sending-off looked the best player on the pitch for The Elephants.
There is no Didier Drogba to drive the Ivorians forward at this competition and so the mantle falls to others to pick up - but it seems the only player that showed much interesting in that was Gervinho, until his moment of madness.
African Footballer of the Year Yaya Toure coasted through the game, though to be fair he had been hampered by injury in the lead-up and it is possible he was still feeling the effects.
Wilfried Bony showed himself in patches - he was involved in the equaliser from Seydou Doumbia - but for the rest there was little to enthuse over.
When you look at this Ivorian side on paper, you see potential champions. Only Algeria have a squad to match them man-for-man, yet as with so many of the recent tournaments, they failed to live up to their billing against Guinea.
That is not to detract from their opponents, who were superb on the day with a useful but limited squad of players.
Coach Herve Renard, who also encountered some lacklustre displays in qualifying, including a 4-1 mauling at the hands of Cameroon, is concerned but also knows there is plenty left in the tank from his side.
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"In the first half we would have deserved to take the lead. We hit the crossbar by Gervinho. We gave them the first goal with a communication gap in our defence. Then we tried to push but it was not easy with the sending off of Gervinho," Renard told reporters.
"We had to react and change something tactically. I am convinced that even at 10 against 11 we had the means to win this match." Renard says his side are still finding their feet after the losses of Drogba and Didier Zakora following the World Cup in Brazil, but this will ring hollow for Ivorian fans who believe there remains enough quality in the side to produce better performances than this.
"We are a team under rebuilding and Guinea have been competitive during the qualifiers and are not a side to be underestimated. We have 23 quality players. I hope that the next game will go our way. We still have a chance to qualify."
Next up for Cote d'Ivoire is a crunch meeting with Mali on Saturday.
