World Cup Group G preview: Ivory Coast v North Korea
Come Friday evening if Ivory Coast are celebrating a place in the knock-out stages of the World Cup, it is safe to say that they would have produced one of the most unlikeliest achievements in World Cup history.
Sven-Göran Eriksson’s side need to turnaround a nine-goal deficit to leapfrog Portugal into second place in Group G.
They would also require Portugal to get nothing from their clash against Brazil. The Elephants, however, still retain hope of an incredible turnaround. Defender Guy Demel revealed that the impossible, remains possible.
"There's one match to go and we owe it to ourselves to win it and hope events go in our favour, nothing's over yet," he said.
If they do manage to create history then Didier Drogba will need to play a key role. The Chelsea forward was seemingly ruled out of the tournament with a broken elbow two weeks ago, but has managed to return to full fitness and scored in their 3-1 defeat to Brazil. He will lead the line in what will be an attacking line up selected by Eriksson, which could see Drogba, Solomon Kalou, Aruna Dindane and Gervinho all start.
North Korea, well, their just playing for pride, following two defeats in the competition including a 7-1 thrashing against Portugal last time out.
Coach Kim Jung Hun took full responsibility for the defeat, following his formation switch at half time, which saw his side concede six second half goals.
"Tactically speaking we fell apart," said Kim. "We made a lot of mistakes that forced us to eat too many goals, but we'll try our hardest to the end and do our best in the final game.
"Back home I believe that they will look at the next game. We have one left. We will reinforce our mental abilities and really work well."
It is easy to forget that North Korea gave Brazil a tough game in their opening game, and a repeat of that performance will see Ivory Coast struggle to win the game, let alone score eight goals against the minnows.
In the 80-year history of the World Cup there have been just six matches with an 8-0 score line or greater, it’s hard to see that stat changing anytime soon.
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