Aurevoir Cote D'Ivoire

Well, another one bites the dust. The Ivory Coast follow Poland, Costa Rica, Serbia and Montenegro and Paraguay out of the World Cup and they can count themselves as thoroughly unfortunate to have been drawn in the group of death-by-glorious-football. They have been, in attacking terms, by far the best African side in the tournament but they've come up against the best team in the tournament and another very good team. From what I've seen so far the Dutch are up there with Italy and the Czech Republic as teams with genuine ability performing at, or close to their best. Their back four did absolutely brilliantly today and only a moment of magic from Bakari Kone beat Edwin Van Der Saar, who looked in imperious form. As a United fan, it was great to see Ruud getting a goal - there was even talk that he might have made up with Fergie - and if Robben, despite a serious problem with selfishness, keeps up his form so far they could be a real threat further down the line. Van Basten has got them incredibly well organised and their game with Argentina could be amazing...