Referee: Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay)
LINEUPS:
Cote d'Ivoire (433): Barry, Demel, Tiene, K Toure, Zakora, Y Toure (Gosso 73'), Eboue, Tiote, Drogba, Gervinho (Kalou (65'), Dindane
Portugal (433): Eduardo, Costa, Coentrao, Carvalho, Alves, Mendes, Tiago (Pepe 81'), Meireles (Deco 65'), Ronaldo, Simao, Danny (Liedson 65')
The thought on the international scene is that if you cancel out Ronaldo you cancel out the Portuguese and that is exactly what the Ivory Coast came to do. The tactic worked with Boubacar Barry looking rather bored in his goal and the game ending up as a simple midfield stalemate.
Cote d'Ivoire should have taken the lead on the half-hour mark when Didier Drogba sprinted onto a terrible backpass, rounded the keeper and found the angle too tight to finish. Other chances for Yaya Toure and Dindane came in the second half but their headers proved to be very easy for Eduardo to save.
On the Portuguese side they had Pedro Mendes shimmying and shaking his way through numerous challenges in midfield but even he was unable to break through the African defensive setup leaving both teams without an advantage over the other in Group G.
Cote d'Ivoire 0 - 0 Portugal
Goalscorers:
None
Discipline:
POR Meireles 7'
POR Simao 87'
Man of the Match:
POR Pedro Mendes
| GROUP G | ||||||||
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Brazil | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 3 |
| Cote d'Ivoire | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Portugal | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| North Korea | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |
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