Nicolas Pépé’s double eased Ivory Coast past Curacao in a 2-0 victory at Philadelphia Stadium, sending the Ivorians into the last 32 of the World Cup for the first time in their history. The win confirmed qualification as Group E runners-up for a nation that, until now, had never survived the group stage.
“Celebrate this historic qualification, like we should,” manager Emerse Faé told his compatriots. “Once we’re done celebrating, we want to go as far as possible in this competition. This is a young group. They’re all at their first ever World Cup. They’re playing well. There is a lot of solidarity in this group.”
“Ivory Coast reach World Cup knockout stages for first time after 2-0 win over Curacao.”
The spirited Curacaoans, playing in their first World Cup, leave the tournament despite giving good sport in five of six halves. They managed an equaliser against Germany in their opener, then played out a 0-0 draw with Ecuador in which goalkeeper Eloy Room made 15 saves – the most at a World Cup since 2014 and the most on record in a game without extra time.
While Ivory Coast celebrate, Scotland face near-certain elimination. Steve Clarke’s side were well beaten 3-0 by Brazil in Miami on Wednesday, leaving them on three points from a win over Haiti and defeats to Morocco and Brazil. Their chance of progression to the last 32 has now dropped to 5.26%, according to statistics cited by the Mirror, after South Africa beat South Korea and Ecuador beat Germany – results that gave third-placed teams in other groups better records.
Scotland are now relying on four of the remaining six groups having third-placed teams with worse records than their three points and -3 goal difference. Their elimination could be confirmed as early as Saturday morning. “We made it difficult for ourselves, that’s it,” Clarke told BBC Sport. “We gave them the goals, we gave them the game they wanted. Disappointing. … For sure I think we’re going home.”
If Scotland go out, it will maintain their record of never having made it past the first round of any major tournament in history.