Diomande shines in landmark win as Ivory Coast reach knockouts | OneFootball

What an night for Yan Diomande and Ivory Coast!

Our attacker helped his national team to a 2-0 win over Curaçao and a historic milestone on Thursday night. At their fourth World Cup, the Ivorians have finally reached the knockout stages for the first time.

Yan played a key role in getting them there too. In the build-up to the opener, the 19-year-old showed real strength down the left to beat two defenders before intelligently cutting the ball back into the middle. Nicolas Pépé was waiting and slotted home to make it 1-0 (7’). Pépé also scored Ivory Coast’s second of the night (64’).

Les Élephants finish Group E in second place on six points, behind Germany and ahead of Ecuador. They will now face the runners-up from Group I in the round of 32, with that position to be decided on Friday evening in the meeting between Antonio Nusa’s Norway and France. Yan will be back in action in Dallas on Tuesday, 30th June.

Raumi involved from the start

David Raum was also in the spotlight on the final group matchday. Our captain made his first start of this World Cup in the 2-1 defeat to Ecuador and played a key role after just two minutes.

Raumi’s throw-in level with the left edge of the box helped set Germany’s early opener in motion. The ball was worked through Aleksandar Pavlović and Florian Wirtz to Leroy Sané, who kept his cool and found the bottom-left corner from around 16 yards.

David remained a constant outlet down the left after that. The RBL full-back repeatedly delivered dangerous balls into the box, including for Kai Havertz’s headed chance in the 26th minute and Deniz Undav’s effort into the side-netting in stoppage time.

Ecuador turn it around – Germany still top the group

Ecuador needed a win to keep their hopes of reaching the round of 32 alive, and gave it everything they had at MetLife Stadium. Roared on by tens of thousands of passionate supporters, the South Americans came from behind through goals from Angulo (9’) and Plata (77’).

For Germany, the defeat did not affect their position at the top of the group. They go through to the round of 32 as Group E winners, while Ecuador also progress as one of the eight-best third-placed sides.

David Raum, Assan Ouédraogo and Germany will be back in action in Boston on Monday at 22:30 CEST. Their opponents have not yet been confirmed, although the current permutations suggest it could be Paraguay, who finished third in Group D.

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