Nicolas Pepe scored twice as Côte d’Ivoire beat Curacao 2-0 last night to reach the 2026 World Cup knockout rounds for the first time ever and bring the tiny Caribbean country’s run at the tournament to an end.

Former Arsenal forward Pepe, now playing in Spain for Villarreal, opened the scoring for the Elephants after just seven minutes in Philadelphia and netted again just after the hour mark.

Côte d’Ivoire finished on same six points as Group E leaders Germany who lost 2-1 to Ecuador last night also. The Elephants had earlier beaten Ecuador 1-0 in their opening game before losing 2-1 to Germany.

They therefore go through in second place behind Germany on head-to-head.

The 2024 African champions had never previously got out of their group in three previous appearances at the World Cup, and their reward for this historic performance is a last-32 tie next Tuesday in Dallas.

That will be against the runners-up in Group I, which means a very tough test against either France — the country where Pepe and several other Ivorian players were born — or Norway.

Curacao, with its population of barely 160,000, had already made history just by being at the World Cup, but the smallest nation ever to reach the finals go home after finishing bottom of the section without a win.

Dick Advocaat’s team were thrashed 7-1 by Germany on their tournament debut, but the high point came in their next game as they withstood a barrage to hold Ecuador to a 0-0 draw.

RESULTS

Czech Rep 0-3 Mexico

S’Africa 1-0 South Korea

Ecuador 2-1 Germany

Curacao 0-2 Ivory Coast

TODAY

Friday, June 26:

Japan v Sweden

Tunisia v Netherlands

Paraguay v Australia

Turkiye v USA

Norway v France

Senegal v Iraq