By Tobi TAIWO
Côte d’Ivoire did well to ward off any opposition from the smallest country at the 2026 World Cup Curaçao to qualify for the Round of 36.
The West African country are also Africa’s fourth team to move into the knockout round after Morocco, and South Africa.
Les Éléphants have crashed the party and made it out of their group for the first time in four World Cup appearances.
They beat Ecuador 1-0 in their tournament opener — at the same Philadelphia stadium and lost to Germany in its Group E second game.
Ivory Coast will play June 30 against either France or Norway — whichever is the runner-up in Group I.
Curaçao needed to win and instead failed to become the smallest nation to qualify for the knockout stages.
Pépé, who plays for the Spanish club Villarreal, wiped out all the suspense in this one early, scoring in just the seventh minute and the lead held the rest of the game in front of an enthusiastic crowd that made Les Éléphants feel at home. Ivory Coast held its training base in nearby Delaware and practiced at the Philadelphia suburban home of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union.
Cote d’Ivoire needed only a draw to advance yet played with a competitive fire the rest of the game and never let Curaçao seem close to getting even in this one.
Ivory Coast pounced when 19-year-old Yan Diomande, who came to America four years earlier as soccer prospect who couldn’t speak any English, snared the ball when Curacao failed to clear it and fed it to Pepe for the easy goal past Eloy Room.
The 37-year-old Room had made 15 saves against a relentless Ecuador attack and helped The Blue Wave earn their first-ever point with a 0-0 draw on Saturday.
Curaçao is an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people in the Caribbean within the Netherlands kingdom. The team relies almost entirely on players born and raised in the Netherlands.
