 Didier Drogba scored with a deflected free-kick |
Ivory Coast drew 2-2 with Paraguay in their only pre-World Cup friendly before coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has to name his squad. The Elephants went two-nil up thanks to goals from Didier Drogba and Souleymane Bamba but then conceded twice to draw. Lucas Barrios and Aureliano Torres got the goals for Paraguay. In his first game in charge, Eriksson named a strong team, which as well as Drogba, featured both Kolo and Yaya Toure, Aruna Dindane and Didier Zokora. Chelsea striker Drogba had missed a free header just before the break but earned the lead with a heavily-deflected free-kick after 53 minutes. Bamba doubled the lead for Ivory Coast on 74 minutes but Paraguay were back in it just a minute later, as Barrios neatly controlled a cross on his chest before drilling past Boubacar Barry in the Ivorian goal. Then in the final moments of the game Torres' free-kick also took a wicked deflection to beat Barry. "I think we had a good game. We needed that," the Ivory Coast captain Didier Drogba said afterwards. "We're still working and we still have some things to change. We have two weeks to work." This is the first week Eriksson has had with the team since taking over from Vahid Halilhodzic at the end of March and both coach and players are trying to get accustomed to each other. "I think everybody understands the message the coach is trying to deliver," Drogba added. "It's too early to speak about what he Eriksson has done, we just listen and try to do what he is telling us in terms of team spirit and where he wants us to play. "We're trying to apply this on the pitch." Eriksson is aware of the task ahead of him after his team blew a two-goal lead in the final 15 minutes. "It's all about organisation, to defend well together, to attack well together and we're working every day on that, and hopefully it will get better and better," the Swede said. "Individually, we have a lot of good footballers and it's up to me and them to put them together, to get a working unit together." Eriksson will have another opportunity to test his team against Japan on Friday in Switzerland. Ivory Coast are in Group G at the World Cup, lining up alongside Brazil, Portugal and North Korea.
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