Ivory Coast beats Serbia and Montenegro 3-2 in Group C

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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Ivory Coast scored three goals to pull back a 2-0 deficit and beat Serbia and Montenegro in Munich, Wednesday.

This match had no effect on the Fifa World Cup round of sixteen as the two sides started the game without a point in Group C. The win was Ivory Coast's first at a World Cup finals.

Serbia and Montenegro had been beaten 6-0 in their previous Group C tie with Argentina but to begin with seemed to have put that behind them.

Nikola Žigić with great skill took down a long ball from Dejan Stankovic and rounded Boubacarthe Barry on 11 minutes. Ten minutes later Sasa Ilić made it two when Cyrille Domoraud under pressure miscontrolled the ball six yards from goal.

Moments of indiscipline - two Milan Dudic handballs and the sending off of Albert Nadj for a second yellow card just before half time - seemed to show it was the broken will of the Balkans team that eventually lost the game.

Ivory Coast would end the match with 68 per cent of ball possession and having had 14 extra shots, including a Blaise Kouassi effort that hit the white of Jevric's goal.

Serbia and Montenegro were 2-0 up when on 37 minutes Dudic stuck out his hand to touch a ball tossed in front of Dragoslav Jevric's goal. Aruna Dindane tucked the spot kick away. Moments later the side in blue were down to 10 men when Nadj walked for a rough challenge into the side of Abdulkader Keita.

In the second half Dindane bagged his second, a header from a Keita cross. Then Bonaventure Kalou stepped up and scored the winner from another penalty six minutes before time.

Milan Dudic had also a hand in the second Ivory Coast penalty as it was his hand that had got in the way of Kalou's shot.

Both sides lacked the necessary discipline to keep 10 men on the pitch for the whole game. Domoraud received a second yellow in injury time and the captain had started to walk even before the referee had flashed his red.