Ivory Coast

Blessed with plethora of attacking options, Ivory Coast is one of the dark horses of this tournament. This will be the last World Cup for Didier Drogba, one of the most understated strikers in recent times.

Finally not a group of death

Ivory Coast has always been a team that likes to attack and do with in a swift fashion, using their biggest strengths – pace and power. But even though they had great players, they never really delivered on a big stage and their best result in the World Cup is a group stage exit.

Of course, this was also due to their tough draw. In 2006, they had to play Netherlands and Argentina. In 2010, it was Portugal and Brazil. Now, they have to deal with Colombia, Greece and Japan – probably not the strongest teams around.

If there’s one world that would describe this team currently is ‘fresh’. First, Ivory Coast’s FA appointed Sabri Lamouchi as the head coach of this team and this is his first job. Secondly, the Frenchmen insists on calling up young players who already have experience of playing in Europe.

Rejuvenated outside England

He ditched Emmanuel Eboue from the squad and gave the right back position to Serge Aurier of Toulouse. Aurier is 21 and plays mostly as a wing back in the club, due to a 3-5-2 formation utilised by Alain Casanova.

But Ivory Coast’s main strength lies in attack. Didier Drogba was called up and should play a part, but he will most likely start games on the bench. The number nine position will be given to Wilfried Bony, who had an average season and Swansea City. He scored goals for fun in Eredivisie last season at Vitesse and was sold to England. He can be dubbed ‘Drogba 2.0’ because of his strength and heading skills but he lacks his more experienced teammates’ raw talent.

On the wings Lamouchi has two players who didn’t meet expectations in England but delivered in Europe. Gervinho’s talent and skills were questioned when he played for Arsenal and the fans were pretty happy to see him sold to Roma. Under Rudi Garcia in Italy Gervinho was rejuvenated showing what can be made with his pace and technique. Of course he often missed sitters and didn’t pass the ball when needed but overall it was a good season from him.

Then, there’s Salomon Kalou who was constantly left on the bench whilst playing for Chelsea but in Lille he is the main striker and scored 16 goals this season in Ligue 1. Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored more.

With Drogba ageing, Yaya Toure takes the spot of the best Ivorian player. He had a great season at Manchester City and he would have finished first in all Player of the Year competitions if it wasn’t for Luis Suarez’s exceptional goalscoring form. He’s an offensive central midfielder with great technique. But he can also be a liability in defence, which was pointed out by Didier Hammann on British TV.

Ivory Coast has the right ingredients to finally advance into the knockout stages but they need to concentrate on all of their games.

Playing style

They will try to dominate games with using their physical advantage but they will be more of a counterattacking team because they lack technical quality and defence to keep the ball and maintain a high line of defence. Everybody will have to contribute in all phases of the play to keep high  the team’s chances of qualifying.

Coach

This is the first Sabri Lamouchi job during his managerial career. As a player, he was a French international and played in Euro 1996. He was also won two championships with AJ Auxerre and AS Monaco.

Schedule and BETEGY predictions

14th June, Recife: vs. Japan (2-1)

19th June, Brasilia: vs. Colombia (0-1)

24th June, Fortaleza: vs. Greece (1-0)

Ivory Coast’s chances of qualifying are looking quite will (56% probability) and should finish the group stage with six points. Then, according to BETEGY, they should play Uruguay but they’ll lose to the South American team 0-1 and return home.