Overview
Ivory Coast will participate in the World Cup knockout round for the first time when facing Norway in the round of 32 at the Dallas stadium. The winner of this match will meet Brazil in the round of 16.
This is the first time in four World Cup participations that Ivory Coast has passed the group stage. "The Elephants" also set a new milestone when they won more than one victory in a World Cup for the first time and scored the opening goal in all 3 group stage matches. Before them, only Nigeria had done this with an African team at the 1994 World Cup.
Coach Emerse Fae's team was only led for a total of 3 minutes and 29 seconds in the group stage, after a 1-2 defeat to Germany. They quickly stood up with a 2-0 victory over Curacao to win a ticket to the next round.
Nicolas Pepe was the brightest star in that match with a double goal. The former Arsenal player scored after only 6 minutes and 4 seconds, becoming the Ivory Coast player to score the fastest goal at the World Cup, and also the second person for the national team to score a double at the biggest football festival on the planet after Aruna Dindane in 2006.
At the age of 31 years and 27 days, Pepe is also the second oldest African player to score 2 goals in a World Cup match, only behind Cameroon legend Roger Milla.
Besides Pepe, Yan Diomande also made a strong impression. The winger of RB Leipzig made 10 successful dribbles and created 10 chances in the group stage, becoming the second African player to reach this milestone after Quinton Fortune of South Africa at the 2002 World Cup.
On the other side, Norway returned to the World Cup after 28 years and quickly made a mark thanks to Erling Haaland's explosive form. The Manchester City striker scored 4 goals in the first 2 matches, contributing greatly to the victories against Iraq (4-1) and Senegal (3-2).
In the last match of the group stage against France, Haaland was given a break when Norway had already qualified for the next round. The Northern European team lost 1-4 to Ousmane Dembele's excellent performance.
Coach Stale Solbakken is likely to reuse the strongest squad that has ever defeated Senegal, with Martin Odegaard, Alexander Sorloth and Haaland starting together. If he continues to score a double, Haaland will become the first player since Sandor Kocsis in 1954 to score 2 or more goals in his first three appearances at the World Cup.
This is only the third knockout match in Norway's history at the World Cup. They have lost to Italy in both previous appearances in 1938 and 1998. However, Norway has also never lost 2 consecutive matches since the 2022 Nations League.
Meanwhile, history is waiting for Ivory Coast to conquer. Before them, only Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) were two African representatives who won right in the first knockout match at the World Cup.
Head-to-head record
This will be the first time Ivory Coast and Norway have faced each other in history, and also the first confrontation between the two teams at a World Cup.
Ivory Coast does not have a good record when facing European representatives at the World Cup. "The Elephants" have only won 1 in 5 matches (1 draw, 3 losses), and have also lost in the last two encounters, including a regrettable 1-2 defeat to Germany in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup.
Score prediction: Ivory Coast 1-2 Norway
The match between Ivory Coast and Norway takes place at 0:00 AM on July 1st (Vietnam time).
