« There is no such thing as a friendly for a national team, especially against Cameroon. » Hervé Renard had warned the day before. Then he fielded a reshuffled XI, with around ten changes from the side that had beaten Somalia (2-0) four days earlier. Franck Kessié, Evan Ndicka and Yan Diomandé on the bench. The result: a 0-1 defeat on Saturday 3 October in Ébimpé, to a Bil Nsongo goal in the 46th minute.
On at half-time, the Real Madrid winger did not beat about the bush when speaking to NCI: « It is true that it is a friendly, but a Côte d’Ivoire-Cameroon match is always special. We wanted to win, but the coach wanted to try something. Unfortunately, it did not work. » Put simply, the defeat was first and foremost the result of a coaching choice. Renard, for his part, took responsibility for the result.
Not such a harmless friendly
The setback comes at a bad time. The match counted towards the FIFA ranking, which will be used to determine the seeds for the AFCON draw. It is also Renard’s first defeat since returning to the Elephants’ bench. Diomandé now heads back to Real Madrid, whom he joined this summer.