Ivory Coast crush Benin

The Ivory Coast continued their impressive start to the African Nations Cup tournament today as they defeated Benin by 4-1 as Didier Drogba and Aruna Dindane got among the scorers to keep their tournament hopes well on track.

The opening stages were surprisingly cagey for both sides, with fully twelve minutes elapsing before the first real chance.

Drogba found Dindane completely unmarked in the box, but the Lens striker lacked composure and rattled the woodwork with a header when he should have scored.

Next, Dindane turned provider, but Kalou was only able to balloon his volley over the bar.

It was all Ivory Coast now, but Benin were occasionally looking threatening through set pieces, even though their midfield was beginning to look overawed on the ball, even if they were fairly comfortable closing the opponents down.

But Kalou showed this marker a clean set of heels ten minutes before the interval to stride forward and cut the ball back to Drogba. The predatory striker, though, somehow blasted over from eight yards.

Still, the inevitable came three minutes later when Barcelona's Yaya Toure showed defensive and offensive credentials to first win the ball and then play the through pass to Drogba, who this time made no mistake.

That opened the floodgates, for Toure himself was able to bundle home just before the interval.

Ivory Coast were cruising as the whistle sounded, but in a worrying development, Kolo Toure had to be replaced at half time.

Benin made an alteration of their own just after the break, but it made little difference as Kader Keita managed a third.

The Lyon man scored from close range after Didier Drogba took advantage of a dreadful backpass to play him through on goal, from where he made no mistake.

Dindane then made it four 65 minutes in after Didier Drogba showed his class to control an incoming corner, turn on the ball, then play Dindane through to head past Rachad.

Off came Drogba, and later Keita, as coach Gerard Gili protected any of his stars from joining Kolo Toure on the injury list, and the game slowed to a crawl.

Both Kalou and young substitute Gervinho had their chances, but in fact the final strike fell to Razak Omotoyossi. The Helsingborg ace got on the end of a lovely cross from Sessegnon to head home, giving the small Beninoise contingent something to cheer about.