Ivory Coast were in the death group: Bamba

(GSM) – Souleymane Bamba has expressed his disappointment in Ivory Coast’s early exit from the World Cup and revealed “We were in the death group again.”

Ivory Coast ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over North Korea in their final Group G game in Nelspruit but it was not enough to earn a place in the second round.

Earlier the Elephants and Portugal both played out a goalless draw but their hopes dented by a 3-1 loss to Brazil.

“We were in the death group again,” Bamba told Reuters.

“Two World Cups, two tough groups, but nothing we can do,” the 25-year-old explained.

The Hibernian defender said coach Sven Goran Eriksson made a big difference and they would have been keen for him to remain in the job.

“We see the changes he made — we played better and more like a team,” he said.

“If he was there more than three weeks before I think we’d have had even more chance to go through.”