Ivory Coast beat Tanzania 4-2 at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Sunday.
In front of a packed stadium of 60,000 fans, the Ivorians knew that a win would mean that they would progress through the qualifying stage for the World Cup.
The game didn’t begin as they planned, however. Amri Keimba opened the scoring for Tanzania, scoring after just one minute. Lacina Traoure restored parity on 13 minutes and the Ivorians began to dominate play and keep possession better.
Yaya Toure gave the Mighty Elephants the lead when his powerful free kick on 23 minutes left the keeper with no chance.
But Tanzania would not let themselves be bullied out of the tie. Thomas Ulimwengu found the back of the net on 35 minutes to make it 2-2.
It looked like the half would end all square, but just before the whistle went a penalty was awarded to Cote d'Ivoire. Yaya Toure stepped up to convert on 44 minutes and take the lead into the break.
Gervinho was particularly dangerous for the Ivory Coast in the second half as he caused Tanzania all sorts of problems, but somehow the Ivorians could not score.
The game became scrappy towards the end, until finally Wilfried Bony scored the final goal on 93 minutes to close out the game. The result leaves Ivory Coast with a clear path to the World Cup in Brazil.
