Tuesday, 15th June 2010
Drogba 0 Ronaldo 0
 
Côte d'Ivoire vs Portugal
in Port Elizabeth.
Svengali is back, but for how long this time?
Côte d'Ivoire started the sharpest, while Cristiano Ronaldo found it
hard to stay on his feet and easy to get Didier Zokora in the referee's book.
An early yellow card in the Ivory Coast defence made it easier for
Ronaldo to run at the West Africans; touch, turn and smash the ball against the Ivorian
post.
Less than a quarter of an hour after the first incident, Ronaldo
flopped over Guy Demel's legs. Both players were booked for getting themselves all heated
up and puffing out chests.
After a promising start, football fans were once again left
disappointed, as yet another 2010 World Cup Finals match ended the half without a goal
(seventh out of thirteen, so far).
Half-time: 0:0
Deco showed a little more initiative at the start of the second-half
and in an attempt to be more affective up front, Simao soon replaced Danny for Portugal.
If the vuvuzelas could get any louder, they did in the 65 minute; when
Didier Drogba came on for fellow Chelsea player, Salomon Kalou.
The fans may have waited a long time to see if Didier Drogba would
play but they'll have to wait until another day to see if can score with a broken arm;
although he came close in the last minutes, but whipped the ball across the goal instead
of finding a way into it.
Who would have thought that the New
Zealand vs Slovakia game would be more exciting than this billing, but it was - by
far!
Final Score:
Ivory Coast 0 Portugal 0
 Goalscorers:
None.
Man of The Match:
In a game where no-one scored, or no-one had any great defending to do, Gervinho did a
good job of leading the West African attack for most of the game.
Teams
Ivory Coast:
1 Boubacar Barry; 17 Siaka Tiônô, 5 Didier Zokora, 4 Kolo Tourô, 20 Guy Demel; 9 Ismael
Tiotô, 19 Yaya Tourô, 21 Emmanuel Ebouô; 15 Aruna Dindane, 8 Salomon Kalou, 10
Gervinho.
 Portugal:
1 Eduardo; 23 Fôbio Coentrôo, 2 Bruno Alves, 6 Ricardo Carvalho, 3 Paulo Ferreira; 16
Raul Meireles, 8 Pedro Mendes, 20 Deco; 9 Liôdson, 7 Cristiano Ronaldo, 10 Danny.
Referee:
Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay)
 Substitutions:
55 Mins (Portugal) - 11 Simao on for Danny
62 Mins (Portugal) - 19 Tiago on for 20 Deco
65 Mins (Ivory Coast) - 11 Didier Drogba on for 8 Salomon Kalou
82 Mins (Ivory Coast) - 18 Abdul-Kader Keita on for 10 Gervinho
85 Mins (Portugal) - 17 Ruben Amorim on for 16 Raul Meireles
89 Mins (Ivory Coast) - 13 Jean-Jacques Gosso on for 21 Emmanuel Ebouô
 3 Yellow
Cards:
7 Mins - Didier Zokora (Ivory Coast)
21 Mins - Guy Demel (Ivory Coast)
21 Mins - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
 0 Red Cards.
Previous Encounters:
This is the first meeting between Ivory Coast and Portugal, although Didier Drogba is no
stranger to Cristiano Ronaldo.
2010 World Cup Finals - Knockout Stage.
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