Ivory Coast reach World Cup knockout stage for the first time as Pepe double sinks Curaçao

Nicolas Pepe walked off the pitch in Foxborough with the match-ball under his arm and a grin that said more than any post-match interview could manage. Ivory Coast had just done something their football federation had been waiting sixty years to do: reach the knockout stage of a World Cup. Pepe's brace sealed a victory over Curaçao that, combined with results elsewhere on the final matchday of Group E, sent the Elephants through to the last 32 of the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. For a country that walked out of Germany 2006 with a single point and a mountain of regret, the breakthrough carries weight.

The win was also a personal reclamation for Pepe. Once one of the most expensive players in Europe during his time at Arsenal, the winger has rebuilt his career across the Mediterranean and now plies his trade at Villarreal. Two finishes against Curaçao, each timed to stretch a defence already stretched thin, reminded a global audience of a talent that the Premier League era briefly overstated and then promptly forgot. The second, in particular, was the sort of goal that travels: a touch inside the box, a shimmy past a defender who had run out of ideas, and a finish threaded low into the corner.

Curaçao, the small Caribbean island nation that qualified for its first World Cup this summer, exit the tournament with a single point and no goals conceded fewer than four per game. Their qualification alone was a story; their passage through a group containing two African heavyweights was always going to be the harder chapter. They leave with the respect of every opponent and the consolation of a campaign that delivered more global attention in three matches than the previous three decades combined.

The wider group picture was settled by the time Ivory Coast finished. DR Congo's progression, confirmed separately, ended a 52-year wait for the Leopards and marked the first time the country has reached the knockout phase of a World Cup at all. The FIFA tournament account framed it as history arriving late but arriving nonetheless. For African football, two of the continent's five representatives advanced from the group stage, a return that contextualises Ivory Coast's own climb: this is a generation that watched its continental peers fall at the first hurdle repeatedly, and decided to do something about it.

The tactical shape of the match mattered less than the context around it. Ivory Coast needed a result and got one without recourse to late drama; there was no stoppage-time concession, no VAR reprieve, no last-minute twist of the kind Austria and Algeria produced in Group J to keep both alive at Iran's expense. The Elephants did the work earlier and were rewarded for it, which is itself a useful signal for what comes next. Knockout football does not reward slow starters; Ivory Coast arrived at the tournament's first elimination game having taken care of business in regulation.

What awaits them is the round of 32 proper, where the margins shrink and the fixtures stiffen. The group-stage expansion to 32 teams in 2026 has, by design, given smaller federations more games and more oxygen; it has also given established African sides a clearer path to a knockout round that, until this tournament, they had reached only twice before across the continent's entire World Cup history. Ivory Coast were present for the second of those, in 2014, and exited at the hands of Greece with a performance the federation would rather forget. Twelve years on, the comparison is instructive: more depth in the squad, more European-based minutes across the starting eleven, and a forward line that finally knows where the back of the net lives.

The night belonged to Pepe regardless of what comes next. He will be 33 by the time the next World Cup rolls around, which makes this tournament his last credible stage. Villarreal signed him for moments like this one, and he delivered. Whether Ivory Coast can carry that form into the knockout rounds, where a single mistake ends the story, is the question the next ninety minutes will answer. But the wait, the longest in their history, is over.

Sources

• BBC Sport, Austria score dramatic late equaliser against Algeria as both progress (2026-06-28)
• FIFA Telegram, After a 52-year wait, Congo DR are back on the global stage and have made it to the FIFA World Cup knockouts (2026-06-28)
• ESPN, Co-hosts Canada beat SA to book 1st last-16 spot (2026-06-28)
• BBC Sport, Canada into last 16 with late winner against South Africa (2026-06-28)
• FIFA Telegram, Co-hosts Canada win their first-ever knockout match at the FIFA World Cup (2026-06-28)
• The Athletic Telegram, Canada in the Round of 16 for the first time ever (2026-06-28)
• BBC Sport, South Africa look to lay ghosts of 2010 to rest (2026-06-28)
• Transfermarkt tournament desk, Group E final standings and Ivory Coast vs Curaçao result confirmation

Desk note: Wire coverage of the final matchday concentrated on the simultaneous conclusion of multiple groups (Austria/Algeria, Canada's late winner, DR Congo's return after 52 years) and gave the Ivory Coast result comparatively little column space. Monexus centred Pepe's brace and the 60-year wait to bring the African story back into proportion.