Ivory Coast face Curacao with knockout stage on the line

A win in Philadelphia and you're through

This is it. Ivory Coast face Curacao in the Group E finale on Thursday, and a win sends the Elephants into the knockout stage (1) (3). The math is simple. After pushing Germany to the edge in a 2–1 heartbreaker, your team controls its own destiny.

Curacao are not here to make up the numbers. One betting expert on an 18–8 World Cup run flagged the underdog as live value (1). Philadelphia is the stage.

Glenn Nyberg with the whistle

Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg will officiate the match (2). Nyberg has history with big personalities, Cristiano Ronaldo confronted him after a contentious VAR call in Portugal's group stage opener against Scotland (2). Ivory Coast fans will hope the spotlight stays on the football.

Fan reactions

Curacao's pre-match video got people talking on r/soccer, dramatic, cinematic, the kind of thing that fires up a squad before their biggest game of the tournament. City fans in the daily World Cup thread are locked in across both Group E matches, with the Ecuador-Germany result running parallel and directly affecting Ivory Coast's path to the last 16.

Curacao's pre-match video