Despite having achieved a lot of success in his career so far, Didier Drogba is yet to play a World Cup playoff match.
The veteran striker has featured for his team Ivory Coast in a couple of World Cups so far, but, both times, his team couldn’t go past the group round.
The upcoming World Cup, in all likelihood, is going to be Drogba’s last. He is 36 years of age at the moment and it’s hard to imagine him being around in 4 years’ time. So, this is the last opportunity for him to make a mark at the biggest platform as far as the international football is concerned.
In the last two World Cups, the draws that Ivory Coast had got were fairly difficult, but, they have been slotted in a slightly easier group this time around. So, their fans are expecting a better effort from them.
The Ivory Coast boss, Sabri Lamouchi, is aware of the fact that the expectations are big from his boys, but, he is not feeling any kind of pressure at all.
When asked about the expectations by the belgique coreedusud cote fan site, Lamouchi said, “Look, the fans always dream big and they can’t be stopped from doing that. But, we know that we don’t have an easy task in our hands. The teams which are in our group are quite strong and we will have to play pretty well to clear the group round.”
“Clearing the group round is the first target for us. We are not looking beyond that at the moment.”
The Elephants will play their first match in the FIFA World Cup 2014 against Japan. That match will take place at Arena Pernambuco on 14th of July. The next two opponents for Ivory Coast in the group round will be Colombia and Greece respectively.