Arsenal's Gervinho saves the day for Ivory Coast

RUSTENBURG, South Africa (AFP) –

Ivory Coast’s forward Gervinho (C) scores during the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations Ivory Coast vs Togo football match at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg on January 22, 2013.

Favourites Ivory Coast were made to sweat but eventually overcame enterprising Group D ‘lightweights’ Togo 2-1 to get their Africa Cup of Nations campaign off on the right note.

Premier League stars Yaya Toure and Gervinho got the goals for the continent’s top-ranked team with Jonathan Ayite scoring for Togo, back in the competition after the deadly Cabinda attack before the 2010 finals in Angola.

Despite all the pre-competition focus on Didier Drogba making his Cup swansong, the veteran China-based striker went largely AWOL throughout the match and was taken off with a quarter of an hour to go.

“I was expecting something better from us — it wasn’t our best performance,” said Ivory Coast coach Sabri Lamouchi.

“I thought the first match was going to be difficult, but it was much harder than I was envisaging.

“I’m happy with the win, but we made too many mistakes, and will have to use this game as a lesson.”

Togo coach Didier Six — visibly upset by his team’s disallowed second-half goal — stormed out of the press conference, but not before saying: “I think my team deserved something else than that. It wasn’t right, the rules weren’t respected.”

Ivory Coast’s starting XI for the Group D opener featured three Premier League stars — Manchester City‘s Toure brothers Kolo and Yaya and Gervinho of Arsenal, with Newcastle’s Cheik Tiote on the bench.

A fourth footballer taking a busman’s holiday from the British winter to help his national cause was Togo’s talismanic Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who decided to turn up after a protracted ‘will he play, won’t he play’ saga.

The match kicked off before barely a couple of thousand fans at the 42,000-capacity Royal Bafokeng stadium — a small crowd was only to be expected, perhaps, in Rustenburg, Afrikaans for ‘city of sleep’.

Adebayor almost nicked a goal in the opening seconds, when an Ivory Coast defensive blunder presented him with the ball bang smack in front of goal, but dithering undid him and keeper Boubacar Barry cleared.

The Ivory Coast team celebrates beating Togo 2-1 during the Africa Cup of Nationsin Rustenburg on January 22, 2013 at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in a Group D match.

On eight minutes Gervinho proved too quick for his marker down the right flank, his cross finding Yaya Toure, who struck first time, the ball zinging through the Togolese defence, taking a deflection en route, and into the back of Kossi Agassa’s net.

The midfielder has now scored at every one of the last four Nations Cups.

Despite the gulf in class — they are ranked a yawning 63 rungs below the Ivorians — Togo were making frequent incursions into Elephant territory, with Ayite and Serge Akakpo proving particularly meddlesome.

Ivory Coast, beaten by Zambia on penalties for the title in 2012, seemed happy to sit on their lead, although Yaya Toure almost got a second when his shot ricocheted off the near upright.

Then, in the second minute of stoppage time, Togo achieved something that no team had accomplished throughout the entire tournament last year — namely score against Drogba and company.

They drew level when Ayite knocked in Akakpo’s corner from the left — the first goal Barry has conceded in 613 minutes of CAN action.

Togo had the ball in the back of the net for a second time approaching the hour mark off a corner but Cameroon referee Alioum Neant disallowed it, ordering the kick to be retaken as they had taken it too early.

Gervinho and Yaya Toure teamed up neatly again with 15 minutes left, Toure’s shot denied by Agassa’s superb reflex save.

Then, with two minutes left, Gervinho saved Ivory Coast’s blushes, this time Yaya Toure turning provider with the free-kick to the far post, which the Arsenal man swept past Agassa.