CAF President Sends Message to Ivory Coast Ahead of World Cup R32 Clash vs Norway
- The Elephants of Ivory Coast will face Norway in the Round of 32 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the US
- Ivory Coast beat Ecuador and Curaçao to finish second in Group E behind Germany, which they narrowly lost to
- CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe has sent a message to the Ivorians ahead of their first knockout game
CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe has sent a message to the Elephants of Ivory Coast ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup Round of 32 match against Norway.
Ivory Coast reached the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup for the first time after finishing second in Group E behind four-time champions Germany.
Source: Getty Images
The 2023 African champions defeated Ecuador in the opening match, narrowly lost 2-1 to Germany, before beating Curaçao 2-0 to reach the knockout stage.
They will face Norway, which also finished second in Group I after beating Iraq and Senegal, but lost to favourites France in their final group game.
The two sides have never met before either in a competitive or friendly match, leaving so much to play for on the biggest stage in football.
Patrice Motsepe sends message to Ivory Coast
CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe published a post on his Instagram page, showing support for Ivory Coast ahead of their match against Norway.
“We are all behind Côte d'Ivoire, the Ivorians against Norway. Good luck to my brother Idriss and the Ivorian team,” he wrote.
CAF will hope that Ivory Coast overcomes Norway and reach the Round of 16 to continue the continent’s impressive run at the World Cup.
10 African nations entered the competition, and nine of them made it to the knockout stage, with only the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia eliminated in the group stage.
Bafana Bafana of South Africa fell in the first match of the knockout stage after Stephen Eustaquio’s late goal secured the win for Canada.
The Atlas Lions of Morocco have made it to the Round of 16 after beating the Netherlands 3-2 on penalties after an intense 120-minute battle.
Fae reacts to Norway resting players vs France
Norwegian manager Stale Solbakken rested most of his key players against France with qualification already secured despite being up against one of the best teams in the tournament.
Emerse Fae was asked if his counterpart made the right decision with the heavy rotation to keep his players fresh, but the French-born coach believes that the end will justify the means.
Source: Getty Images
“In soccer, there’s no truth. I mean, you could have your team and win three group games, you could then lose directly in the knockouts,” he told FIFA.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow and see if it was a good decision for the coach to adjust his team for the last game against France.
“They’ve got 26 players; he gave the opportunity to every player and I believe it’s good for the group, but we’ll see tomorrow if he was right or not.”
Supercomputer predicts Ivory Coast vs Norway
Legit.ng previously reported that Opta’s supercomputer predicts the outcome of the 2026 FIFA World Cup match between Ivory Coast and Norway.
The supercomputer backed Norway with more than 50% of the 25,000 pre-game simulations to win the match in 90 minutes against the Africans.
Source: Legit.ng
