Coulibaly stuns Denmark

24 June 2011

Cote d’Ivoire kept their hopes of reaching the second round of the 2011 FIFA Under-17 World Cup well and truly alive with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Denmark on Thursday.

Hero for the Ivorians was young sensation Souleymane Coulibaly, who netted all four goals for his side, including a hat-trick before halftime.

The win means the African side are second in Group F, ahead of Australia on goal-difference, but face the daunting task of a meeting with Brazil in their final pool match.

Coulibaly, who is on the books of Italian Serie A side Siena and also netted in the Ivorians’ 2-1 opening match loss to Australia, brought his side level midway through the first half after the Danes had taken the lead through Kenneth Zohore.

The European side restored their lead through Viktor Fischer just pat the half-hour mark, but Coulibaly netted his second five minutes later, knocking home a rebound. And he has his hat-trick soon afterwards when he converted a penalty he had won himself after being felled in the box.

It was 3-2 at the break to the Africans and they made the game safe in the second period when Coulibaly scored a fourth, breezing past defenders and netting easily past the Danish keeper.  

Cote d’Ivoire might have had another goal too as Jean Kouassi hit the crossbar.

Things did not go so well for Burkina Faso on Thursday as they lost 3-0 to Germany in Group E to all-but end their participation at the tournament. They also finished the match with just nine men.

Koray Guenter, Mitchell Weiser and Levent Aycicek (penalty) were on the scoresheet for the dominant Germans. It might have been more too were it not for the heroics of Burkina Faso goalkeeper Seni Ouedraogo.

Yaya Bamba and Ben Zerbo received their marching orders for the Burkinabe, who must now thrash Ecuador in their final match and hope other results go their way to finish as one of the best third-placed teams in order to advance to the knockout stages.