By Hariharan
Match Review
South Africa, Tuesday, June 16, 2010 — It was all bark and no bite as Ivory Coast and Portugal played out a goalless draw in the first match of the “Group of Death”.
Ivory Coast were in the driving seat in the first half as they looked tactically sound on and off the ball. Their fluid attacking movement lacked a cutting edge in front of goal as Portugal defended in numbers.
Portugal faced great difficulty moving forward as a resilient Ivory Coast held good shape, defending from the half-way line. They tried spraying the ball to their forwards, but were cut out by the Ivorian defense.
Ironically, the best chance of the half came from Portugal in the 11th minute as Cristiano Ronaldo sent the ball ricocheting off the left upright from a long range effort.
The game came to life in the second half as an enlightened Portugal team came out from the break. The Portuguese forwards dropped a little deeper, offering more options for the man in possession.
However, the attacks were futile as both teams could not find the net. The keepers remained untroubled for most of the match with only a few easy shots to save.
Cutting into the box, Yaya Toure fed Salomon Kalou the ball from the right in the 54th minute but the Chelsea man’s side-foot effort was direct at Portugal keeper Eduardo.
Liedson latched on to Deco’s cross from the left and got a header on target in the 57th minute, but did not trouble keeper Boubacar Barry as he executed a routine save.
The stadium erupted as Didier Drogba came on for Kalou in the 65th minute, but the striker did not make an impact coming on as Portugal seemed to grow stronger in attack.
A series of toothless attacks from the Portuguese followed as Ivory Coast finished strong in injury time, with Drogba wasting a great opportunity to score the winning goal.
Next, our pundit Dilip Thapa provides us his post-match opinions. He predicted a 2-1 Portugal win.
Dilip Thapa of VJC. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports archive)
Dilip Says:
Despite ending goalless, and looking back at all the previous matches, I believe this match was undoubtedly one of the more exciting ones. Every attack from both sides looked threatening. There were many fierce tackles as both teams were working desperately hard to close down each other.
The physically well-built Ivorians made very good use of their strength to deny the nippy Portuguese from scoring. Overall I think the referee had a very good workout and it was heartwarming to watch soccer at such high pace.
Man of the Match: Gervinho and Kolo Toure
Toure controlled the defence very well, making it difficult for the Portuguese to penetrate. On the other half of the field, I think Gervinho was working very hard to attack.
| Group G | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BRAZIL  | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 7 |
PORTUGAL  | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 5 |
IVORY COAST  | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 4 |
NORTH KOREA  | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 12 | -11 | 0 |
For the World Cup fixtures list with Singapore broadcast timings as well as group tables and the list of CCs with free screenings, go to: http://redsports.sg/2010-world-cup-fixtures-groups/
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