Known as the Ivory Coast in English, or as ‘The Elephants’, this side is making only their second appearance in the World Cup. The best moment in their footballing history is a 1992 African Cup of Nations victory. The Cote D’Ivoire have come on strong in football terms over the last few years and they possess enough quality to give their group rivals a very hard time.
They had qualified for the 2006 tournament the hard way, emerging as group winners ahead of Egypt and Cameroon. Their time in Germany was not a success however as they were given a tough draw against Holland, Serbia and Argentina. They lost to Argentina and Holland 2-1 in two extremely close matches, proof if any was needed that they belonged at this level. They qualified for the 2010 World Cup after coming through unbeaten in their first group stage. Here they comfortably finished ahead of Mozambique. The final group stage offered them a kind draw which they took full advantage of by winning five of the six matches and qualifying comfortably, scoring 13 goals in their three home matches.
Their group contains Brazil, Portugal and North Korea. Although it seems likely that Brazil will come through, Cote D’Ivoire will think that they have a great opportunity to qualify for the second round as Portugal looked far from impressive during their qualifying campaign. Their head to head encounter looks certain to determine the second qualifier from their group. Their squad contains a whole host of stars from the English Premiership and other European leagues. Didier Drogba has a brilliant international record, scoring 43 times in 66 appearances for his country. Other top class players in their side include Salomon Kalou of Chelsea, Bakari Kone of Marseille, Yaya Toure of Barcelona and Emmanuel Eboue of Arsenal. With such a strong line-up, it would be very foolish to write off the elephants this summer.