Eriksson proud despite early exit

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON felt his Ivory Coast players had made their country proud despite seeing their World Cup campaign end yesterday.

Ivory Coast ran out comfortable winners over North Korea in their final Group G game in Nelspruit but it was not enough to earn a place in the second round.

Former England boss Eriksson said: “It is a pity we have to leave because this team is getting better with every training session. But that is life, we are out and we have to accept that.

“If you look at the three games we have played they should be very proud of themselves and the country should be proud of them.

“The team are leaving the World Cup with their heads held high.”

Ivory Coast went into the game with a theoretical chance of progressing but it would have required victories for both them and Brazil, who faced Portugal, with a nine-goal swing in their favour.

They completely overran a poor North Korea side and bombarded their goal with 28 shots. In the end they only had goals from Yaya Toure, Romaric and Salomon Kalou to show after a combination of wastefulness, bad luck and belated Korean resistance denied them.

Eriksson’s short-term deal with Ivory Coast has now come to an end.

KOREA DPR: Myong-Guk Ri, Cha, Chol-Jin Pak, Jun-Il Ri, Ji, Kwang-Chon Ri, Hong, Ahn, Nam-Chol Pak, Mun (Choe 67), Jong.

IVORY COAST: Barry, Eboue, Toure, Zokora, Boka, Romaric (Doumbia 79), Toure Yaya, Tiote, Keita (Dindane 64), Drogba, Gervinho (Kalou 64).

Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain).