MALABO // Ivory Coast manager Herve Renard said that even Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic would struggle to make the difference at the African Cup of Nations as he dismissed suggestions his side are among the tournament favourites.
Speaking after his side’s first training session at Malabo’s rundown Estadio La Paz on Saturday, Renard lamented the absence of the retired Didier Drogba and said Manchester City stars Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony cannot be relied upon to give his side the edge.
“Wilfried is a goalscorer, but he needs to be in good condition. There is no need to say anything about Yaya – he has not been the best player in Africa for the last four years for nothing,” said the charismatic 46-year-old French coach, whose team begin their campaign against Guinea in Group D on Tuesday.
“But now we need to build a team around him that is capable of working well together. That is the most important thing in football, not names.
“If you came here with Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic I don’t know if it would work.”
A winner of the African Cup of Nations with Zambia in 2012, Renard took charge of the Ivory Coast after last year’s World Cup, but his side did not always convince in qualifying after Drogba retired from the international stage in August.
“We are always one of the most fancied teams but a lot of things have changed from previous years,” he said. “The squad is a lot younger now and if you base it on our qualifying campaign I don’t think we can be labelled one of the favourites.
“When a team comes up against the Ivory Coast they know what that means – three consecutive World Cups, players who play for the very biggest clubs – but we need to find greater collective cohesion if we want to achieve anything.”
In the opening game of the tournament last night, a goal three minutes from time from Espanyol forward Thievy Bifouma rescued a point for Congo as they drew 1-1 with hosts Equatorial Guinea. Emilio Nsue had opened the scoring in the 16th minute.
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