Nicolas Pepe’s Brace Matches Drogba and Sends Ivory Coast into World Cup Knockouts

Nicolas Pepe starred in Ivory Coast’s historic 2-0 win over Curaçao, securing the Elephants’ first-ever progression to the World Cup round of 32. He opened the scoring after a slick assist and then curled in a stunning left-foot strike to seal the victory. Those two goals took him level with Didier Drogba, Aruna Dindane, Wilfried Bony and Gervinho on Ivory Coast’s all-time World Cup scorers list. At 31 years and 27 days old, Pepe also became the second-oldest African to score a World Cup brace, trailing only Roger Milla’s record from Italia ’90. Ivory Coast now prepare to face either France or Norway in the knockout stage.

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