Ivory Coast suffered a devastating 2-1 defeat to Germany after taking a halftime lead but head coach Emerse Faé chose to focus on the positives as well as the negatives in his post-match comments.
Two second half goals from substitute forward Deniz Undav, including his winner in second half stoppage time, allowed Germany to escape from Toronto, Canada with all three points.
All the more damaging after Ivorian substitute forward Simon Adingra failed to convert an excellent chance not long before the winner. Captain and midfielder Franck Kessié previously opened the scoring at the half hour mark for the Elephants.
“Yeah, a little bit of frustration after this defeat. Firstly because we managed to open the scoring against this great German team. Also because we conceded two goals at the end of the game, and especially because we even had the chance at 1-1 to make it 2-1, which would have allowed us to put a real blow on the Germans and perhaps win this match,” Faé stated in his opening comments.
“But alongside the frustration, there is still a lot of pride. Really happy with the behavior of my players during these 90 minutes. We put in a great performance against one of the big favorites in this competition and I think this defeat should serve us well for the rest of this competition.”
Faé went into more detail about what allowed Germany to sneak the victory.
“I think Germany’s victory came down to experience. I think they had a bit more experience than us in how to manage highs and lows. It’s true that during our strong period in the second half, we could have scored the second goal which would have put us a little more in a safe position… so I think it came down to the difference in experience.”
The Elephants remain in a strong position to finish in second place in Group E after Curaçao held Ecuador to a surprise 0-0 draw later on Saturday. Ivory Coast will clinch the runner-up position if they avoid defeat against Curaçao but Faé will not allow his team to get complacent.
“We know we don’t expect Curaçao to let us win the match on Thursday. We know it’s going to be another fight.
“Afterwards, we will first recover physically. We will also recover mentally because we lost. So we will recover well and then we will prepare for this match to win it as we do in all matches and achieve the first objective we set for ourselves which was to pass the first round. The positive point is that we still have our destiny in our own hands