Ivory Coast made sure of their passage to the round of 32 of the 2022 FIFA World Cup with an emphatic 2-0 win over Curaçao in their last Group E game on Thursday.
The Elephants were impressive from the start and Nicolas Pépé got two goals that helped them qualify into the knock out stage.
The Ivory Coast were aware that all they needed was to win the match to secure qualification to the next round and they dominated possession for the most part of the match until they scored in the 35th minute through Yann Diomandé who assisted Pépé to score.
The Islanders tried to come back after the restart of the match but could not break the solid Ivorian defense line up.
Ivory Coast doubled their lead in the 64th minute through Nicolas Pépé whose goal came through Ibrahim Sangaré who assisted him to put Ivory Coast two goals ahead and secure their ticket to the next round.
However, the Islanders did manage to secure themselves some yellow cards with Curaçao captain, Juninho Bacuna getting booked in the 75th minute while Gervane Kastaneer got his in the 83rd minute.
It was a comfortable ride to victory for the Ivorians who managed to get their second win in the tournament after defeating Ecuador and getting beaten by Germany.
This made Ivory Coast qualify for the Round of 32 as they have shown some great performances in the tournament in pursuit of a historic World Cup trophy.
Pépé’s winning display once again proved how important he is to the Elephants side as he was the one to score on two different occasions and showed class in those crucial moments. Diomandé was another player whose energy on the field was admirable, whereas Sangaré was the key midfielder and assisted in the second goal.
For Curaçao, this was the end of their World Cup journey as after getting hammered by Germany and drawing against Ecuador, they could not do anything against Ivory Coast to qualify for the knockout stages.
