New Delhi: Coming from the Dark Continent that has been throwing up amazing talents regularly, Cote d'Ivoire will be hoping to take forward the good works done by Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal etc forward.
The Elephants from Cote d'Ivoire were not even expected to be in Germany as they had even failed to qualify for the last Nations Cup in Tunisia.
But they overcame formidable opposition from Cameroon, Egypt, Sudan and Libya in their group.
Their qualification campaign got off to a great start with the team winning four and losing one of their opening five matches.
After the untimely death of their assistant coach Mama Ouattara during a training session, the Ivorians vowed to secure qualification by way of honouring his memory.
However, they lost their way during the second half of the qualifiers and lost against Cameroon, who were now the leader of the group.
They finally managed to secure their 'divine qualification', as Ivorians like to call it after registering a 3-1 victory away to Sudan in the 'miracle of Omdurman', while Cameroon were held to a 1-1 draw by Egypt in Yaounde.
The academy of Jean-Marc Guillou where key players like Aruna Dindane, Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora, Arthur Boka, Blaise Kouassi and Barry Copa were groomed played a major role in its successful qualifying campaign.
But the biggest star for the Elephants is Didier Drogba who scored nine goals in qualifying. The other players to watch out for will Bonaventure Kalou, Cyrille Domoraud and Jean Jacques Tizie.
Coached by Frenchman Henri Michel, who has already led three teams to the FIFA World Cup finals previously occasions (France, Cameroon and Tunisia), Cote d'Ivoire could prove to be one of the major surprise.
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