Ivory Coast 3 Tunisia 0

Sabri Lamouchi claimed Ivory Coast have announced themselves at the Africa Cup of Nations after their comprehensive Group D win against Tunisia in Rustenberg.

Goals from Arsenal striker Gervinho, Manchester City powerhouse Yaya Toure and late subsititute Didier Ya Konan ensured they improved on a below-par win against Togo in their opening fixture.

The Elephants – who started without captain Didier Drogba – should now reach the quarter-finals, and Lamouchi was unable to hide his pride in the performance against the country of his birth.

“We really entered this competition today,” he said. “We caused a lot of problems for this very good Tunisian team and were never really threatened at any point.

“My first satisfaction comes from the victory and the second from the content.

“I didn’t play Didier Drogba because it seemed to me that the 11 players I picked were the best to overcome this good Tunisian side.

“I told my players that I had not seen great players, but a great team.”

Tunisia boss Sami Trabelsi was left to rue a slow start to the game as the Eagles of Carthage failed to trouble Ivory Coast keeper Boubacar Barry in the first half.

With five minutes of the game remaining, Saber Khelifa could have snatched an unlikely point however and Trabelsi felt his side were unfortunate not to secure a draw.

“Until the 25th minute we hadn’t entered into the game,” he said. “[Gervinho’s] goal that we conceded was due to a lack of focus.

“But after that, up to the 85th minute, we tried our best and were quite threatening at that stage until they scored two more goals.”