Tournament favourites, the best striker in the world, star names all over the pitch (bar the goalkeeper…very Brazil), fantastic qualification form, oodles of international experience. A neat summary of Cote D’Ivoire…in 2008.

The African Nations Cup was there for Cote D’Ivoire’s taking in Ghana. And their 5-0 quarter-final victory over Guinea was imperious. But there, in striker Didier Drogba’s goal celebration, as he turned 360 degrees to take the acclaim of the (mostly-empty) ground, were the seeds of their downfall. The Elephants thought they had the tournament won, and forgot that Egypt had been pretty good too. Ergo, 4-1 to Egypt in the semi-final.

International football competitions are littered with such downfalls. Brazil in the ’82 World Cup, Denmark four years later, Holland in 1974 and Euro 2000, England in 1970, if you want to stretch the point. But Cote D’Ivoire’s bitter experience two years ago should stand them in good stead in Angola.

Everything else is in place. Drogba has no problem replicating his frightening club form on the international stage, top scoring with six goals in the final qualifying group, with which the Elephants romped away. Names like Yaya Toure, Didier Zakora, Emanuel Eboue and Kolo Toure trip off the tongue – Zakora closer at Sevilla to the dynamic force of the 2006 World Cup than the subsequent Tottenham misfit. Aruna Dindane is a better player too than his Portsmouth career suggests.

And goalkeeper Boubacar Barry…well, no-one is perfect, and the qualifying group was scarcely a tougher test than the Belgian League in which he earns his money for Lokeren.

Bosnian coach Valid Halilhadzic may well instil the discipline to avoid 2008’s delusions of grandeur for the Ivory Coast, Sevilla midfielder Ndri Romaric was dropped from the squad despite an important contribution to the qualification campaign. The tournament is the Elephants’ to lose.

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