Didier Drogba concedes that “there is a real problem” following Ivory Coast’s humiliating 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea, which effectively ended their chances of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations.
According to Mirror, After winning three of their three group games, the tournament hosts were soundly defeated at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe, placing them third in their group. Although Ivory Coast can no longer control their goals, if Cameroon loses to Gambia on Tuesday, they can still guarantee a spot in the knockout stage as one of the top four third-placed teams.
Despite having a golden generation recently, Ivory Coast has only won one AFCON since 1992, which was in 2015. Despite not being the tournament’s greatest player, Drogba is still regarded as a national hero and his nation’s all-time leading scorer. He was worried that they might already be gone as hosts.
“We will have to get back to work, not only asking the right questions, but also making the right decisions,” he said to Ivorian broadcaster NCI. for football and only football, as a country like Ivory Coast is unable to host such a competition in the modern era and will inevitably lose so quickly. However, there is a serious issue with this approach.”
After defeating Guinea in their opening match, Ivory Coast suffered a humiliating loss to Nigeria in their last group match. After their loss, head coach Jean-Louis Gasset acknowledged that some of his players were sobbing in the locker room.
It’s a nightmare,” he remarked. We entered the game well, going after them and establishing the pace, having trained hard for it. We had access to resources and opportunities. Since those two games, though, we’ve tried forcing things but haven’t been able to score.
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Conversely, our opponents’ minuscule half-chance resulted in a goal. You have to be efficient to play football. We learned a lesson in realism from Equatorial Guinea.
“Do I still believe we can qualify? Obviously. We won one match out of three, we have people who are behind us. But when you wait for the results of others, that’s not a good sign.”
For the first time in forty years, the Ivory Coast is hosting the competition, but they risk an embarrassing early exit. Despite having players like Nicolas Pepe and Franck Kessie in their ranks, they were taken aback by their underdog opponents.
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