World Cup 2025 group stage: day 8
COLOMBIA 2-1 IVORY COAST
(Rodriguez, Quintero; Gervinho)
A good game contested mainly in the wide areas, with the Ivory Coast full-backs overlapping and the Colombian wingers counter-attacking in behind them
Ivory Coast full-backs forward
This match was enjoyable throughout, but the tactical battle was very basic. Like in their opening match, the Ivory Coast tried to get their full-backs forward whenever possible, completely restructuring their system in order to get Arthur Boka and Serge Aurier high up the pitch. A couple of times, this meant that both Serey Die and Cheick Tiote dropped into the defence, to form a four-man backline along with the two centre-backs, while the full-backs pushed into the opposition half.
The problem, though, was that the full-backs weren't supplied often enough, and when they did get chances to cross, they found Mario Yepes and Cristian Zapata much more comfortable in the air than the Japanese centre-backs were on Saturday.
Colombia counter-attacks
Colombia sometimes struggled to deal with the threat of the Japanese full-backs, because it meant their wingers were being forced into extremely deep positions. But they didn't always track all the way back, and Juan Cuadrado remained in a position to counter-attack down the right. This pushed back Boka, and for much of the game he couldn't get forward as much as Aurier.
The majority of Colombia's attacks came down the right with Victor Ibarbo darting inside from his left-wing position to help overload the Ivory Coast on the opposite side. There was a very set pattern to the Colombian attacks – James Rodriguez would drop away from the Ivorian central midfielders to find a pocket of space, before immediately looking to loft the ball into the opposition left-back zone for Cuadrado to run onto. This approach brought the opener against Greece last week, and should have had the same result here – Teo Gutierrez missed a golden chance after a perfect example.
The Ivorians couldn't cope with Cuadrado, constantly fouling him when he attempted mazy dribbles.
Rodriguez, though, was running the show. He's thriving in this number ten position, and while he initially felt like a converted winger in that role, he's actually shown tremendous intelligence and all-round ability by varying his position and moving deep to conduct the play.
He was also crucial in Colombia's two goals, in situations you wouldn't expect – first he rose excellently to head in a Cuadrado corner, then he pressed high up the pitch and dispossessed Die, creating a 2 v 1 break which allowed substitute Juan Quintero to score.
Ivory Coast fightback
Ivory Coast weren't able to make a full comeback from 2-0 down, but Sabri Lamouchi was positive with his changes, effectively moving to a 4-2-4 formation. Didier Drogba had already replaced Wilfried Bony upfront, and Salomon Kalou
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