19th: IVORY COAST

An easier group and I think we'd be seeing the Ivorians in the last 16. In the end, their failure to beat Portugal coupled with that team's drubbing of North Korea proved the deciding factors. Drogba, on whom they were always going to heavily rely, was never fully fit, having broken his arm in the run-up to the tournament, but IC still had enough good players across the park to rate themselves as one of the best African teams in the competition. Sadly for the continent, only Ghana were to have any involvement beyond the group stage.