The Estadio Castelao will see Greece play the Ivory Coast later today with Greece up until now playing some extremely defensive football. In team news, Greece’s Kostas Katsouranis is serving a ban after being sent off against Japan. This will probably open the door for Giorgios Karagounis with the Greeks needing a win here in order to have any chance, mathematically, of landing a place in the last sixteen. On the Ivory Coast team sheet there are also injuries and bans with Didier Zokora who has picked up two yellow cards and Didier Ya Konan who has a problem with his knee. Zokora being unavailable will probably see Kolo Toure getting a call up, with Chelsea legend Didier Drogba also available for selection.
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This tournament has thrown up a lot of surprises and shock results, but coupled with that we have seen some great football, with Dutch Total Football, Brazilian flair, Mexican grit and Uruguayan moments of magic. Unfortunately all the Greeks seem to have brought to the party is stubbornness in boatloads. In fact in this tournament alone they have only managed to score in one match so far, something they will need to do at least three times should Japan also manage to win today. Greece are having a goal drought so far, and have only managed to score twice in the last eight games.
Ivory Coast for their part could progress to the knockout round for the first time in their history should they manage to break a resolute Greek defence and win here today, something they stand a chance of doing, owing to the fact that Greece will have to actually come out and play if they are to stand any chance of going through. This will open Greece up a little more than usual, and hopefully leave space at the back for the Ivorians to exploit. If the game ends up as a draw this will leave both the Elephants with little else to do except watch what happens in Cuiaba. If Japan manage to beat Colombia by two goals the Ivory Coast’s tournament will be over.
Elephants’ coach Sabri Lamouchi opted to use Didier Drogba as a substitute in their first two encounters, electing instead to start Wilfried Bony, who is hardly a prolific goalscorer for his country. In fact, Didier Drogba is his country’s most capped player and highest goalscorer, so his exclusion from his country’s starting eleven as been a real surprise. Gervinho has been sadly overlooked because of this debate, his performance being very worthy of note so far for Cote D’Ivoire, scoring against both Colombia and Japan en route to this game. If heh scores this evening , he will become the first Ivory Coast player to net in three back to back World Cup matches for any African country.
Defeat would be unthinkable for the Ivory Coast, as that would spell immediate elimination. Greece will be a tough, defensive nut to crack and Bony, Gervinho, Drogba and Co. will need to muster everything they have against the Piratikos this evening.
