Mini football figure - Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast

The Ivorian national football team is the national football team of Côte d'Ivoire. Its greatest successes in international tournaments were winning the African Continental Championship in 1992 and 2015 and qualifying for the finals of the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

History

Côte d'Ivoire played its first international match on 13 April 1960. They celebrated their first victory against Dahomey with a 3-2 win. Up to and including 1970, the team never qualified for the World Cup. They wanted to participate for the first time in 1974, but failed to qualify. Participation in the following seven World Cup competitions was also unattainable. As early as 1992, the federation took part in the King Fahd Cup 1992, the predecessor of the Confederations Cup. In addition to Côte d'Ivoire, three other nations were in the tournament. In the semi-finals, the team met Argentina and was beaten 4-0. Three days later, on 19 October 1992, they suffered another defeat in the third-place match, losing 5-2 to the USA. The two Ivorian goal scorers were Abdoulaye Traoré, who equalised in the middle game, and Donald-Olivier Sié, who reduced the score to 2:4. The reason for their participation at the time was to win the Africa Cup for the first time.

Africa Cup 1992

After three third-place finishes in 1965, 1968 and 1984 and a total of eight appearances at the Africa Cup, the Ivorian team won the tournament in 1992. In Group C of the preliminary round, they came out on top against Algeria and the Republic of Congo. After further victories in the quarter-finals against Zambia's selection and the kickers from Cameroon, the team advanced to the final, where they were to meet Ghana. After 90 minutes and extra time, the score was tied (0-0) and the match had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out in Dakar. After Ghana's Isaac Asare missed at 4:3, Joël Tiéhi had a chance to decide everything, but also failed. It was not until the score was 11:10 and Anthony Baffoe had taken his second penalty (all the other players had already shot) that he missed, thus making Côte d'Ivoire the winners.

World Cup 2006

In Africa Group 3, Côte d'Ivoire competed between June 2004 and October 2005 for the 2006 World Cup/qualification for the 2006 World Cup. With Egypt and Cameroon, two favourites were in the same group. With seven wins and one draw in ten matches, the team earned 22 points, one more than Cameroon. This success was only made permanent on the last match day when, at the same time, the Cameroonian team could not go beyond a 1-1 draw with Egypt and thus lost their top position.

In their first World Cup match, the team lost 2-1 to Argentina. The first goal for Côte d'Ivoire, the equaliser at 1:2, was scored by Didier Drogba. They also lost the second match 1:2 against the Netherlands (goal scorer: Bakari Koné). This meant that the Ivorians, in their first World Cup participation, were narrowly eliminated after the preliminary round against equally strong opponents. In their third preliminary round match in Munich, they met Serbia & Montenegro, who had also been eliminated earlier, and were their last opponents. They won this match, after trailing 0:2, 3:2, after 2 penalties and a goal in second half injury time.

Africa Cup 2010

At the 2010 Africa Cup, Côte d'Ivoire started with a 0-0 draw against lower-ranked Burkina Faso, but then rallied to beat Ghana 3-1 in their second group game to book their place in the quarter-finals. The last group match against Togo was cancelled because the Togo team withdrew from the tournament after an attack on the team bus. In the quarter-final against Algeria, the team took an early lead but had to accept the equaliser in the 40th minute. When they regained the lead in the 89th minute, their place in the semi-finals seemed assured, but the North Africans equalised in injury time, sending the match into extra time. In extra time, Algeria took an early lead and defended it until the end. The elimination meant a drop of six places in the FIFA world rankings.

Africa Cup 2012

At the 2012 Africa Cup, Côte d'Ivoire reached the final against Zambia with five wins and no goals conceded. There, too, the team did not concede a goal, but could not score in 120 minutes either, so that the penalty shoot-out had to decide. Côte d'Ivoire lost this 7:8.