Ivory Coast became the third African team, after Morocco and South Africa, to book their place in the Round of 32 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after beating Curacao 2-0 on Thursday thanks to a Nicolas Pepe brace, finishing second in Group E behind Germany.
Pepe opened the scoring in the seventh minute after being teed up by the lively Yan Diomande before the Villarreal forward completed his brace with a curling finish in the 64th minute.
Ivory Coast became just the second African team to open the scoring in all three of their group-stage matches at a FIFA World Cup, after Nigeria achieved the feat at the 1994 tournament.
With his brace, Pepe became just the second Ivory Coast player to score two or more goals in a World Cup match, two decades after Aruna Dindane netted twice against Serbia in 2006.
At 31 years and 27 days old, Pepe is now the second-oldest African player to score a brace at the World Cup, behind Roger Milla, who did so for Cameroon against Colombia in 1990 at the age of 38 years and 34 days.
“My two goals? It’s all thanks to the team. On the first one, Yan [Diomande] did a great job setting me up with the ball.
“We’re going to try to go as far as possible; we have the players and the quality to do it. We’ll need to stay focused, rest up, and see who we’ll be playing against.”
Speaking after the match, Ivory Coast coach Emerse Fae insisted his team is eyeing a deep run at this year’s World Cup after booking their place in the knockout stages for the first time.
“Pride is the first word that comes to mind. We knew we could do it, and we also knew it was going to be difficult. We did it,” Fae said.
“On top of that, we finished second. We’re happy and proud, but we’re looking even further ahead. We’re going to rest up well for our next match.
“Ivory Coast deserves this, can enjoy it, and can celebrate tonight. They can keep cheering us on so we can go as far as possible.”
The Elephants could now come up against Erling Haaland’s Norway or two-time champions France in Arlington, and Fae believes his team can cause an upset.
For Curacao, meanwhile, their first World Cup campaign ended in disappointment as they fell just short of becoming the lowest-ranked nation to qualify for the knockout stages.
After being thumped 7-1 by Germany, they responded with a goalless draw against Ecuador but were unable to get themselves over the line against the African side.
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