To the great disappointment of Ivory Coast supporters, the Elephants will not face Argentina as originally planned in March. Emerse Faรฉ, who has still not signed his contract as coach, has spoken out about the two new opponents of the African champions.
“It’s not official yet, but we should play against Benin and Uruguay. These are two very good matches as well,” announced the recent winner of the AFCON on Wednesday during his appearance on the La Grande Team show on La3 channel. So, while the Elephants won’t cross paths with Lionel Messi, they will still face a South American team, albeit of lower caliber, but far from being an easy opposition. Present at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Celeste is indeed a team to be taken very seriously. Just like Benin’s Cheetahs, against whom Ivory Coast will still be the clear favorite.
The motivation to beat the recent African champions is likely to be quite high among the Cheetahs, so beware of premature celebration. These are certainly just friendly matches, but the Elephants will be under scrutiny after their AFCON victory, and underperforming would definitely be noticed.
At the Parc des Princes?
As journalist Malick Traorรฉ specifies in a post on his X account, the friendly match between the Ivorians and Uruguay could take place at the Parc des Princes on March 18th. The Paris Saint-Germain stadium, with a capacity of over 48,000 seats, is expected to be the venue for this enticing encounter between the Elephants and the team led by the iconic Marcelo Bielsa, the former coach of Olympique de Marseille.
