Colombia met Africans Ivory Coast in an exciting encounter
for the fight for first place as both these teams were expected to progress
from Group C. Colombia beat Greece convincingly in their first game, while
Ivory Coast came from behind to beat Japan 2-1 in their opening game.
Colombia-Ivory Coast was a highly anticipated game, with a lot of goals
expected.
Colombia started brightest, and controlled the game. Ivory
Coast struggled to get a foothold and could have found themselves a goal down
after a quick flowing counter attack from the South Americans but Gutiérrez was
unable to convert the cross from close range.
It wasn’t until the second half when the deadlock was broken
by Monaco and Colombia superstar James Rodriguez. He got on the end of a corner
to head into the Ivorian goal. It was his second goal of the tournament.
 |
| Rodriguez celebrates his opener. |
Soon Colombia doubled their lead. Ivorian midfielder Die,
who had broken into tears during the national anthems, was caught in possession
by Gutierrez with few defenders ahead of him. His perfect ball drew Zokora out
of position and found substitute Quintero who finished was sublime.
Ivory Coast pulled one back just three minutes later.
Gervinho’s magnificent jinking run saw him dance past three tackles before
smashing home for The Elephants to set up a nervy finish. A stunning piece of
individual skill; one of the best to have graced Brazil so far. Ivory Coast
nearly got the equaliser but Drogba was unable to capitalise on veteran Mario Yepes’
mistake and David Ospina was on fine form to keep the ex-Chelsea forward at bay
to give Colombia the victory.
Colombia have all but qualified while Ivory Coast probably
need to beat Greece to progress past the group stages for the first time.
Colombia 2 – 1 Ivory Coast 
No comments:
Post a Comment