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Thursday, 17 June 2010 14:02

Ivory Coast will retain approach - Zokora

Africans set sights on Brazil

Didier Zokora says that the Ivory Coast are happy with their draw with Portugal in the Group G opener on Tuesday, and insists the West Africans will continue to focus on a strong defence as they prepare to meet Brazil on Sunday.

Having struggled with a leaky defence for much of their preparation for the World Cup, the Ivorians looked a far more solid outfit as they held the Seleccao to a goalless draw in Port Elizabeth. According to Zokora, the Elephants will need more of the same against the five-time world champions.

"There are three games, and all are tough,” he said. “But we have taken a lot of confidence. We will have to play well defensively again because Brazil are a great team. They have very good players. We will have to be more compact than against Portugal because Brazil have a lot of great players. I was very happy with the result against a team like Portugal. It was not easy. But now I look forward to Brazil."

Meanwhile, Didier Drogba says the team need to offer more of an attacking threat, having created little going forward against Portugal. "Yes, we need to change - we need to score goals. To score goals would be nice. But we need to defend the same and maybe try to improve the one-on-ones, and have more occasions [to score].

“You can only be satisfied with the [Portugal] result, given the young history of the Ivory Coast in the World Cup. To draw against the third nation in the FIFA rankings is amazing for us. I'm really proud of the Ivory Coast and proud of the result."

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Comments (9)
Ivory Coast Case
9 Friday, 18 June 2010 11:22
ramsey
i just hope portugal can defeat brazil or at least we earn a draw result,,while ivory coast was defeated by brazil...don't worry because we have strong defense,,at least we can earn draw result,,maybe 0-0...but i really want portugal to defeat brazil,,so we can get out of this group
stop worrying about the draw!!!
8 Thursday, 17 June 2010 23:58
Frank Silva/ USA
we should not be dissapointed in the draw against ivory coast because we can still get out of this group if we play to the best of our ability. Now if portugal can get out of this group they actually have a very easy road back to the semi finals as we did in 2006. if all the groups end up how they should with portugal coming in second in there group they should play switzerland first instead of spain now we should most likely be able to beat switzerland then our second game would be either against italy or denmark now either one of those teams we can beat now if we win that then we would face the likes of either an argentina or germany which still if we lose in the semi finals this is still a great world cup giving the circumstances i personally would be extremely proud of a repeat semi finals appearence. Now we must get out of our group first and from there portugal actually has a fair chance any portugal fans should look into this we can do it again
Forca Portugal!!!
Nothing for Ivory Coast
7 Thursday, 17 June 2010 21:19
Fresh/Canada
We cannot see Ivory Coast score any goals because it will be a disadvantage for us Justin, I would rather see Brazil get a clean sheet over Ivory Coast because Portugal has a hard time scoring goals.
What a difference
6 Thursday, 17 June 2010 16:57
E. Gomes / NJ
It's amazing how confident the Ivory Coast are after playing defensively, and are willing to continue to do so.
Portugal, on the other hand, seems to be reeling. OK, maybe reeling might be to strong of a word, but definately disapointed.

The fact is that the draw didn't bother me so much, but the way CQ shut it down did.
Keep the faith!
5 Thursday, 17 June 2010 15:33
Linhos/USA
We should stay positive. Portugal have a very solid defence and for once a confident keeper. Look how many times Italy have just barely gotten out of the group stages but went deep in the tournament because of their defence. I would much rather have a stingy defence than a high scoring offence that has to win games 3-2 or 4-3...we all know that doesn't get you far when you play the big nations.

Portugal should focus on getting a solid victory against N. Korea and then approach the Brazil game confidently and not play for a tie or "not to lose". If Brazil beats Ivory Coast comfortably on Sunday they will be qualified and the urgency will not be there for the last game against Portugal... Portugal should approach that game with the mentality that they can win it because they can
@justin
4 Thursday, 17 June 2010 15:28
jaime gomes
if brasil beat ivory coast, then the best possible points total for ivory coast is four, right? if portugal beats korea we will be on four points. so we would only need to draw vs brasil to be sure of finishing ahead of ivory coast with five points. some goals vs korea would help if it goes to goal difference, but i still think we need to hope for a brasil win vs ivory coast. good point about spain maybe finishing second. i think we can do it because brasil may already be qualified so a draw would not be too much to ask. anyway it's gonna be a long few days. lol!
math is not my strong point but I think this is right
3 Thursday, 17 June 2010 15:18
justin from rochester
Jaime if portugal wins and brasil wins, portugal has 4 points and brasil has 6 points. The problem lies with goal differential because if we only win 1-0 and brasil wins 1-0 we only are +1 goal differential. Which means when ivory coast plays korea they will push hard to score twice which would give them 4 points and a goal advantage over us. It is worse for us the fact that we play our last game before ivory does. Depending on how many goals are scored between brasil and ivory changed everything. I guess we want brasil to score a lot vs ivory so they have -2 or 3 GD. That way when we play korea the following day if we can get a goal or two against them we have a comfortable gap between us and ivory. That way when we play brasil we can just play for a draw because hopefully we gained enough ground from out korea game. SO many variables and I hate thinking about it!!! Hope that made sense.
2nd is good
2 Thursday, 17 June 2010 14:32
Virgilio/Madeira
With Spain losing yesterday, 2nd place in our group would be better than 1st.
this is good
1 Thursday, 17 June 2010 14:11
jaime gomes
the last thing in the world we want is for ivory coast to beat brasil, so its good if they will be defensive again. i think the brasil midfield is weak and if ivory coast really went for it they could cause a surprise. a brazil win and a portugal win vs korea would mean we just need to draw with brasil in the last game to be sure to go through. i know it's negative, but thats the reality. forget about first place.

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