By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…German Machines Faulty, Slumps 1-2 to Ecuador in Group E.
THREE TIMES African champions, Elephants of Ivory Coast on Thursday night Nigerian time, at the Philadephia Stadium trampled on the Blue Waves of Curaco 2-0 causing collateral damage to the debutantes as the Ivoriens for the first time in their soccer history qualified for the knockout stages.
Villarreal Forward, Nicolas Pepe stamped the damage with a brace (slang for scoring two goals in a match) in the 7th minute when he got a diagonal pass from Yan Diamonde who pounced on a defensive error to find Pepe.
The second goal came in the 64th minute as Pepe got a beautiful assist from Ibrahim Sangare but Pepe committed a foul that looks like deserving a straight red card by stamping on an opponent in the 35th minute but escaped with a yellow which was the only caution to Ivory Coast as Curaco got two cautions in the match.
The Elephants roared as if in pains in the jungle dominating play with 62-38% possession; stringing a valuable 564-336 passes and having 6-4 corner kicks advantage but their marksmanship was poor with 3-3 shots on target.
Ivory Coast ranked 33rd in their 4th appearances thus skipped into the knockout stages for the first time having been eliminated at the group stages in 2006, 2010 and 2014 as against Curaco ranked 82 that was coming to the party for the first time.
In the other Group E match played at the New Jersey Stadium in New York, the German Machines of Germany developed a surprise fault as she slumped 1-2 to less fancied Ecuador.
Patmos Media cannot immediately substantiate whether the loss was deliberate to SAVE CORNER (a terminology used to describe what usually happens in last group games during tournaments when a team has already qualified for the next stage and does not want stress) or it was a sellout match.
Leroy Sane had opened scoring in New York for Germany in the 2nd minute when he was found by Florian Wirtz.
Ecuador equalized in the 9th minute through Nilson Angulo who got a pass from Pedro Vite and the winning goal came in the 77th minute through Kevin Rodriguez who got an assist from Gonzalo Planta.
Group E ended with Germany on top with 6 points scoring 10 goals and conceding 4; Ivory Coast came 2nd also with 6 points scoring 4 goals and conceding 2; Ecuador chalked 4 points scoring 2 goals and conceding 2 while debutante Curaco is going home with a point scoring a goal and conceded 9.
Already ousted Tunisia will meet the Orange Boys of Netherlands at midnight today in group F.
#2026WorldCup #CAF #CONCACAF
#FIF #FFK #NFF.
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