Ivory Coast show intent while Sweden bare teeth in opening games

Ivorian Manager Emerse Faé said Ivory Coast’s 1-0 victory over Ecuador showed his young side’s World Cup ambitions were genuine, after substitute Amad Diallo’s 90th-minute winner secured a winning start to their campaign on Sunday.

The Ivorians have impressed since booking their place at the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico, following comfortable warm-up wins over South Korea and Scotland in March and a 2-1 victory away to France last week.

Faé’s youthful attack, including highly rated 19-year-old winger Yan Diomande, was tested by an experienced Ecuadorean defence featuring Paris St Germain’s Willian Pacho and Arsenal’s Piero Hincapié, shielded by Chelsea midfielder Moisés Caicedo.

“We came to the US for this, and we came here with ambitions, with high hopes,” Faé told reporters. “We don’t want to just have visited the US and must go back, so everything is going well for now.

“We’ve beaten France. We are starting this competition well against Ecuador, a very tough team, but we managed to come into our own and won the match. This shows that our team has acquitted itself well.”

With four-time champions Germany favourites in the group, this match could prove decisive in the battle for second place.

Germany thrashed debutants Curaçao 7-1 in the other group game in Houston and will face Ivory Coast next in Toronto on Saturday.

“It will be a difficult match again,” Faé added. “It’s Germany. They have lots and lots of experience. World Cup, they won it a few times. They have players playing in the greatest European clubs. They have a very striking power.

“We’ll go eyeball to eyeball with them and we’ll try to give it our all. We have our own qualities. We’ll lean on our own strength and we’ll try to bring down the German wall.”

Ivory Coast, appearing at the World Cup for the first time since 2014, have never reached the knockout stages.

Sweden strike

Sweden’s Yasin Ayari scored two sensational goals and Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyökeres also got on the scoresheet as they cruised to a 5-1 World Cup Group F victory over Tunisia on Sunday.

After scraping through to the finals after a dismal qualifying campaign, they responded by scoring five goals in a World Cup match for the first time since 1938 when they defeated Cuba 8-0.

Ayari – the son of a Tunisian father and a Moroccan mother – put Sweden ahead in the seventh minute after goalkeeper Mouhib Chamakh fluffed his lines trying to clear under pressure from Isak, and what followed set the tone for the evening.

The ball fell to Gyökeres, whose shot was blocked, but Ayari picked up the loose ball and blasted home a rocket of a shot to send the yellow-clad fans in the stands into raptures, though the player’s own celebrations were more muted.

Set up to defend and hit Sweden on the break, Tunisia then got a taste of their own medicine as they committed players forward and chased an equaliser on the half-hour mark, only to come undone on the counterattack.

The Swedes won the ball in their own box and played it to Gyökeres, who took it on his chest and instantly released Isak down the left. The striker ran at defender Montassar Talbi before cutting inside and slotting the ball past Chamakh, who should have done better.

The Tunisians did little in the opening half and struggled to recalibrate their game-plan after going behind, but they still managed to pull a goal back before the break, defender Omar Rekik scoring with a superb glancing header that was his side’s first effort on target.

Miscues

Isak and Gyökeres have both proven to be fearsome forwards individually but there were a number of miscues early in the second half as they struggled to play on the same wavelength.

They eventually clicked again on the hour mark when Isak stole the ball from Ellyes Skhiri and teed up his strike partner to make it 3-1 with a simple finish, and Gyökeres could have added a couple more to his total with some better finishing.

Substitute Mattias Svanberg scored straight after coming off the bench in the 84th minute, and though the goal was initially disallowed for offside, it was allowed to stand after a VAR review.

Ayari then closed the show in stoppage time with another wonder strike, firing a thunderous shot from outside the box that Chamakh was powerless to stop.

This time the midfielder celebrated with abandon as Sweden went to the top of Group F on three points ahead of Japan and the Netherlands, who drew 2-2 earlier.

“It’s football, so you know anything can happen, especially at 2-1, but I thought the boys played with a stability and a calmness throughout the game,” Sweden coach Graham Potter said.

“Obviously, when you concede there’s always a danger that you get emotional and you forget what you’re meant to do, but the boys did it well, and we always thought that, if we could stay solid and compact and defend well, we’ve got two guys up front that can hurt them, and I think we offered that threat all night, really.”

Potter was effusive in his praise for Isak and Gyökeres, despite their occasionally scrappy interplay.

“They haven’t played that much together, so it’s going to get better, I think, the more they play. I thought they worked well for each other, worked hard. It’s nice for them to score goals, this convinces them that they are on the right path, but I thought they were both fantastic.” Reuters/DM