Emerse Fae insisted his Ivory Coast team are eying a deep run at this year’s World Cup, after booking their spot in the knockout stages for the very first time.
Ivory Coast finished second in Group E following their 2-0 win over Curacao at Philadelphia Stadium, with goals in either half from Nicolas Pepe sealing the victory.
Pepe opened the scoring in the seventh minute after being teed up by the lively Yan Diomande, before the Villarreal forward grabbed his brace with a curling 64th-minute finish.
It is also the first time that Ivory Coast have won more than one match in a single edition of the World Cup, with the runners-up of Group I being their opponents in the last 32.
That could see them come up against Erling Haaland’s Norway or two-time winners France in Arlington, and Fae believes his team can cause an upset.
“Pride is the first word that comes to mind. We knew we could do it, and we also knew it was going to be difficult. We did it,” Fae said.
“On top of that, we finished second. We’re happy and proud, but we’re looking even further ahead. We’re going to rest up well for our next match.
“Ivory Coast deserves this, can enjoy it, and can celebrate tonight. They can keep cheering us on so we can go as far as possible.”
Ivory Coast are just the second African team to open the scoring in all three of their group matches at a World Cup, after Nigeria in the 1994 edition.
And it was Pepe who got them up and running, before sealing the victory just after the hour.
Pepe became just the second Ivory Coast player to score 2+ goals in a World Cup match, two decades after Aruna Dindane netted a brace against Serbia in 2006.
At 31 years and 27 days old, Pepe is now the second-oldest African player to score a brace at the finals, after Roger Milla for Cameroon against Colombia in 1990 (38 years, 34 days).
“It’s a source of pride and joy,” the forward added. “We’ve qualified for the knockout stage, so for the people of Ivory Coast, this is a source of pride.
“My two goals? It’s all thanks to the team. On the first one, Yan [Diomande] did a great job setting me up with the ball.
“The second was a magnificent pass from Ibrahim [Sangare], and all I had to do was get my foot on it. It’s an individual honour, but also a team one. It’s one game at a time.
“We’re going to try to go as far as possible, we have the players and the quality to do it. We’ll need to stay focused, rest up, and see who we’ll be playing against.”
M E R C I #ElephantsEnMarche #TousDerriereLesElephants #CDM2026 pic.twitter.com/RWc92tqrs3
— Équipe Nationale de Football Cote d’Ivoire (@equipenatciv) June 25, 2026
For Curacao, meanwhile, their first World Cup campaign ended in defeat, as they fell just short of becoming the lowest-ranked nation to qualify for the knockout stages.
After they were thumped 7-1 by Germany, they dusted themselves down to hold Ecuador to a goalless draw, but were unable to get themselves over the line here.
Curacao faced 30 shots on target across their three matches at the World Cup, the most by a team in the group stage of a single edition since North Korea in 2010 (31).
Head coach Dick Advocaat was, however, pleased by his team’s performance in the competition, but urged the Caribbean nation’s recruitment efforts to continue for future success.
“I’ve lived through such tournaments before, so I knew what to expect by and large,” he said. “But still, this team has really exceeded, excelled.
“The way they played against Germany, Ecuador and Ivory Coast. These are world-level teams. We should bear this in mind.
“And they’ve been playing full of enthusiasm. It was a lot of guts. That was really important.
“And this is something that we have to benefit from by turning even better, by trying to see whether we can find some more players willing to play for Curacao.”
