Ivory Coast´s tall order to join Ghana in last 16

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 at Nelspruit’s Mbombela Stadium on Friday and hope that Brazil can aid their cause by slipping a few goals past the Portuguese in Durban at the same time.

The task looks forlorn but Ivory Coast will be relying on their talisman skipper Didier Drogba to ignite their attack and give them an outside hope of pulling off the unexpected.

Ivory Coast’s task was made doubly difficult when Portugal shipped seven goals past the shambolic North Korean defence last start in Cape Town, while the Elephants fell to Brazil 3-1.

Given that the North Koreans can be expected to be more resolute in their defending this time after their Portuguese humiliation, Ivory Coast will be made to work for their goals.

“There’s one match to go and we owe it to ourselves to win it and hope events go in our favor. Nothing’s over yet,” Hamburg defender Guy Demel said.

Much of Ivory Coast’s hopes rest with Drogba, who has scored 129 goals for Chelsea over the last six seasons in all competitions.

“It’s going to be hard for us to qualify now because our fate’s no longer in our hands,” he said.

Drogba, who scored his side’s goal in the loss to Brazil, is working his way back to full fitness after breaking his right arm in a warm-up match and is wearing a controversial protective cast.

Ivory Coast can be expected to manufacture scoring chances, but it’s down to Drogba to finish them off.

“Our team has made progress since the last World Cup, but we could have been a bit more ambitious and tried to go for the game a bit more,” he said.

Manchester City defender Kolo Toure said for Ivory Coast to have any chance they must be more clinical in front of goal.

“We need to be a bit more clinical and do a better job of finishing off some of the counter-attacks than we have,” Toure said.

“We can’t afford to waste counter-attacks like we did against Brazil, it’s unforgivable.

“We’ve got no margin for error in our next match, we need to be more compact and put away our chances.”

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 the artistry of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal conceding six goals in 37 second-half minutes to undo all their good work.

North Korea’s plight also attracted Portuguese sympathy with midfielder Tiago saying he pitied their players.

“I am sad for the North Korean players, because it is not easy when you concede so many goals, but we did our best to first win and if possible to score a lot of goals,” Tiago said.

Coach Kim Jong-Hun took full responsibility for their very public humiliation, admitting he got his strategy wrong.

“Our players played to their full potential but tactically speaking it fell apart and we could not block their attacks and that’s why they scored so many goals,” Kim said.

“As a coach, it was my fault for not playing the right strategy.”

The last 45 minutes was not a pretty sight for the Koreans, and their drubbing was made worse with the match broadcast live into their Stalinist homeland – the first live game shown there in a year.

KEY TO MATCH

Didier Drogba will be aiming to redeem Ivory Coast in what could be their final appearance at this year’s World Cup. He will shoulder most of the responsibility of scoring the hatful of goals the Elephants need to bring off their improbable qualification for the last 16.