Ivory Coast face tall order for last-16

NELSPRUIT: Ivory Coast face the improbable task of making up nine goals on Portugal if they are to join fellow Africans Ghana in the last-16 at the World Cup.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Elephants must deluge North Korea with goals in their final Group G match today and hope that Brazil can aid their cause by slipping a few goals past the Portuguese in Durban at the same time.

Ivory Coast will be relying on their talismanic skipper Didier Drogba to ignite their attack, and give them hope of pulling off the unexpected.

North Korea, playing in their first World Cup for 44 years, began impressively when they made Brazil fight all the way for their opening 2-1 win at Ellis Park. But disaster struck when they unravelled before Portugal to undo all their good work. Coach Kim Jong-Hun took full responsibility and admitted he got his strategy wrong.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2010.