Pepe stars as Ivory Coast reach World Cup knockout stage with brace

Nicolas Pepe rolled back the years with a magnificent individual performance to fire Ivory Coast into the World Cup knockout stage. The experienced attacker scored a historic brace against Curacao in New Jersey, ensuring the Elephants progressed beyond the group stage for the first time in their history with a 2-0 victory.

Pepe opened the scoring after seven minutes, tapping in following Yan Diomande’s work to register the fastest World Cup goal in his nation’s history, and later rifled a spectacular strike into the top corner to seal the win. Modest about his achievement, Pepe said: “Of course!

I know I’ve got what it takes. This is the reward for all my hard work, and I hope it will continue in the upcoming matches too. My brace was down to the team as well... I’d like to dedicate this trophy to the lads. It was one of the best nights of my career.” Manager Emerse Fae added: “Nico knows it, and so do we: he’s a top-class player...

Ivory Coast, New Jersey

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