Cote d’Ivoire vs Benin – OpenThread

January 25th, 2008 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Group B, the tournament’s more or less official “Group of Death”, resumes with Cote d’Ivoire taking on Benin in Sekondi. This is an OpenThread, which means we welcome your comments and will keep you updated with all the goals without getting too in depth. Basically it’s a lazy LiveBlog.

Cote d’Ivoire 4-1 Benin

Drogba 40′ – Omotoyossi 90+
Toure (Y) 43′
Keita 52′
Dindane 62′

Group B
Date: Friday, 25 January
Start time: 1700 GMT
Location: Essipong Sports Stadium, Sekondi

FULL-TIME It finished 4-1. Very impressive display from Cote d’Ivoire and at least Benin registered a goal, so everyone’s sort of happy. We’ll have to wait and see what the extent of Kolo Toure’s injury is though. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. Now it’s on to the BIG Group B game, where Nigeria will be looking to put things right against Mali…

90+ GOAL! And not for Cote d’Ivoire. Omotoyossi gets a powerful header to a Sessegnon cross and Barry doesn’t even move. 4-1.

86′ Gervinho beats a defender for pace and strikes and for a moment it looks like he’s scored. The net moves but Rachada has got enough on it to deflect the ball into the side netting. Gervinho looks dangerous though. Cote d’Ivoire have got all kinds of attacking talent. We haven’t even seen the Kone brothers.

81′ Low near post shot from Tchomogo draws an impressive reflex save from Barry. He’s looked solid.

-Quick chat with my old friend Wikipedia reveals Yao’s full name is Gervais Yao Kouassi, he’s just 19 and plays for Le Mans. He’s also known as “Gervinho” and is captain of Cote d’Ivoire’s Olympic team.

76′ Keita off and young Yao is on. He’s got the 10 shirt so he must be a bit special. Good performance from Keita.

67′ Drogba is coming off to a big cheer, Sonougo coming on. Didier Zokora gets the Cote d’Ivoire armband.

62′ GOAL! Dindane finally scores a header! Drogba controlled it and flicked it into the box and Dindae (unmarked again) heads past Rachad and the orange shirts are dancing in the corner again.

58′ Y. Toure and Dindane play some beach football in Benin’s box, knocking it back and forth in the air. Dindane’s easy header in the six yard box is saved by Rachad though.

-In hindsight, Squirrels vs Elephants is very unfair.

-Great strength from Keita to hold off the defenders. I know he’s already at Lyon, but I think a lot more people will know his name by the end of this tournament.

52′ GOAL! Keita slips through and makes it 3-0.

50′ Ogunbiyi finally comes on, replacing old man Gaspoz.

45′ Second half is underway.

HALF-TIME

Kolo Toure leaves on a stretcher with an ice pack between his legs. He’s pulled his groin and is replaced by Gahouri. Bad bad news for The Elephants.

45+Tchomongo draws a good save from Copa.

43′ Another GOAL! Kolo Toure beats a defender with a nice turn and sets up Yaya Toure to tap in at the far post. That’s what brothers are for.

-Nice little team dance from the Cote d’Ivoire.

-Yaya Toure played Didier Drogba through, and Double D had no trouble scoring past Rachad. 1-0.

40′ GOAL! Except they’re not, because Drogba just scored.

39′ Now Kalou fires over the bar. Cote d’Ivoire are the new Ghana.

33′ Drogba fires over from eight yards. I would have bet all the money in my pockets on him scoring. I would have been $0.22 poorer.

29′ Possession stats are 61% Cote d’Ivoire to 39% Benin. Seems a matter of when, not if, the Elephants will score.

27′ Drogab has a free kick, which takes about ten minutes to set up. The ref isn’t happy with the wall, then Drogba isn’t happy with where Keita is standing. He actually walks over and tells Keita where to stand! Then he fires the free kick straight at Rachad.

16′ Sessegnon draws a save from Copa Barry with a swervy long range shot. How did Sessegnon not start the first game?

11′ Dindane heads against the post from a Drogba cross. Dindane must have some sort of body odour problem because there were no Benin defenders within five yards of him.

Lineups:

Cote d’Ivoire – Cope, Eboue, Toure (K), Meite, Boka, Keita, Toure (Y), Zokora, Kalou, Drogba, Dindane
Benin – Rachad, Adenon, Boco, Adjamossi, Chrysostome, Gaspoz, Ahoueya, Sessegnon, Tchomogo (S), Omotoyossi, Tchomogo (O)

0′ We have kick-off.

-Dindane has been told to removes his ring, but Dindane explains that he can’t as his finger is injured! Ref sees sense and lets him play.

-OK, teams are out and ready for kick off. Mouri Ogunbiyi may have settled his differences with Fabisch, but he starts today on the bench.

Preview: Cote d’Ivoire are considered the sharks of Group B, particularly after the win over fellow sharks Nigeria. Benin are considered the minnows. Eurosport refers to this as “potentially the greatest mismatch of the 2008 African Nations Cup.”

Cote d’Ivoire is loaded with superstars from top-level, highly-paid European teams. Benin is…not. Nearly all of the Ivoirian players play in the top leagues of Europe, and the team includes such names as Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, Arsenal’s Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue, Barcelona’s Yaya Toure and Tottenham’s Didier Zakora, just to name a few. Benin’s players include Stephane Sessegnon (Le Mans) and Achille Rouga (Rennes) of French Ligue 1, but most of their players play in the smaller or lower-level European leagues, or outside Europe.

Ivory Coast should win this, but Benin will do their best to keep this from happening. Big question: How much of a distraction will the allegations of attempted match fixing be for the Benin team?

Cote d’Ivoire: The general view is that Cote d’Ivoire got the hard job out of the way first, dispatching Nigeria 1-0 four days ago, and is now expected to go top of the group. They’re also among the favorites to win the tournament. But striker Didier Drogba says they’re not taking this game lightly.

“Our group is one of the most difficult, and we have to focus on the games against Benin and Mali if we want to qualify,” said the Chelsea striker. “We can’t only think about Nigeria, we have to get three points in every game.”

The Elephants have a full roster and should not be missing any players for the match.

Benin: Midfielder Mouri Ogunbiyi had his little tiff(s) with coach Reinhard Fabisch, but all is now fine and good. And Ogunbiyi has apologized for his behavior. Whatever it was. (Reports are all quite cryptic, but it apparently has something to do with breaking team rules.)

Benin may be missing Seidath Tchomogo.

Tournament performance so far:

Cote d’Ivoire currently sit top of the group with three points from a 1-0 win over fellow powerhouse Nigeria.

Benin are tied for bottom with zero points after losing to Mali 0-1 on a penalty kick.

Team blogs: Please stop by and check out our Cote d’Ivoire blog, written by Gianfranco. If you’re a Benin fan who likes to write about the team, the Benin blog is available.

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