Ivory Coast head coach Emerse Faé believes his players paid the price for their lack of experience after a dramatic late defeat to Norway ended the Elephants’ FIFA World Cup campaign.
The African champions were moments away from forcing extra time in their Round of 32 clash before Norway struck a decisive late winner to claim a 2-1 victory and book their place in the last 16.
Although visibly disappointed after the final whistle, Faé refused to criticise his players, instead describing the tournament as an important learning experience for a squad competing on football’s biggest stage for the first time.
“I think we’ve grown a lot thanks to this competition,” Faé told reporters after the match.
“It was one of the players’ first World Cup. I think we lacked a bit of maturity, especially after the equaliser.”
The Ivorian coach suggested his side became too eager to find a winning goal instead of managing the closing stages and taking the contest into extra time.
“Maybe at the end of the five minutes, we tried to hold on and go all the way to extra time,” he said.
“Maybe we forced things to score the second goal before the end.”
That decision, Faé admitted, proved costly against opponents with Norway’s quality.
“In front of teams like that, as soon as they have a small chance to score, they don’t hold back, and that’s what happened tonight.”
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Despite the painful exit, the former Ivory Coast international believes the experience will benefit his squad as they continue to develop.
Rather than dwelling on the disappointment, Faé sees the tournament as a valuable step in the team’s long-term growth, that the lessons learned from such a narrow defeat will help shape a stronger Ivory Coast in future competitions.
