At present, world football is in the international match day period, due to the increasing approaching of the World Cup in Qatar, so the World Preliminary Tournament on all continents has also entered the final sprint stage. Every World Cup qualifier is a few joys and a few sorrows, this time is no exception, we sent away the Chinese national team that shattered the dream again, and unexpectedly witnessed the European champion Italy missing the World Cup for two consecutive times, and there is a team out, which may be even more regrettable
What kind of team is this? Their highest ranking in the world has reached 16th, they have won the intercontinental competition twice, they have produced many top stars in their history, and their current lineup is worth 2.2 billion yuan... I don't know if you guessed it, this team is Ivory Coast, known as the "Elephant of Africa"
At present, the third stage of the World Preliminary Tournament in Africa is in full swing, the first catch of the ten groups is a two-legged match, the winning five teams can directly qualify for the World Cup, Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Senegal and other strong teams have obtained the qualification for the third stage, and Côte d'Ivoire is indeed the only one left behind
This time in the World Preliminary Round, the Ivory Coast squad is strong, and its excellent paper strength can only be slightly overpowered by the ST Africa Cup champion Senegal. Coached by Bomer, the team has Alai, who has scored 33 goals in 35 games in Jaffa this season, Pepe, arsenal's all-time transfer champion, Corne, who has the reputation of "Ko huang", and Zaha, the "true king of London" who plays for Crystal Palace
In midfield, AC Milan boss Casey, who is worth up to 45 million euros, Serry, who has been fiercely sought after by Pinnacle Barca, and Sangaray and Hamid Tramid Traoré, which have attracted the attention of many strong teams, are in the defensive team of Manchester United iron guard Bailey, Wolves stalwart Boli, yellow submarine full-back Oriye and pharmaceutical factory potential rising star Audiron. The overall lineup is not to be described as strong
Unfortunately, in the second stage of the group, Côte d'Ivoire was in the same group as Cameroon, the "African Lion" with Shubo Motin, Onana, Ekambi, Abubakar and Anguiissa, and the two teams fought for a promotion list. Although the upset was forced to be drawn by Mozambique, but with the performance of the first leg to beat Cameroon, in the final round of the showdown, Côte d'Ivoire still maintained a one-point advantage over Cameroon, but Ekamby's one-hit victory completely shattered the hopes of the Ivorians, Cameroon with a 1-0 small victory over Côte d'Ivoire to get the valuable three points, reversed Côte d'Ivoire, won the first place in Group D
This is unacceptable for Côte d'Ivoire, which has missed the 18-year World Cup in Russia, they have once again fallen in the World Cup qualifiers, to know that although this group of Ivorian players is not yet called the golden generation, but the strength of the players is definitely not in the minority, the overall strength in Africa and even the world football are very competitive, but perhaps this is their current disease - the overall average of the team, lack of a person like Drogba, Yaya Toure, Colo-Toure and even star leaders like Kallo come with them. In any case, the inability to see the figure of an "African elephant" in Qatar this winter shows that it is slightly flawed