{"id":4367,"date":"2026-06-05T00:27:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4367"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:27:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:27:24","slug":"france-stunned-by-ivory-coast-spain-draws-with-iraq-in-pre-world-cup-friendlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4367","title":{"rendered":"France Stunned By Ivory Coast, Spain Draws With Iraq In Pre-World Cup Friendlies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Guela Dou\u00e9 scored a goal and set up the winning strike as Ivory Coast surprised France \u2014 and Dou\u00e9&#8217;s brother in the French dugout \u2014 with a 2-1 victory in a World Cup tune-up match Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Amad Diallo fired home Dou\u00e9&#8217;s low cross from the right six minutes from time at Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Rayan Cherki had put France ahead in the final minute of the first half when he left two defenders behind and beat goalkeeper Yahia Fofana with a low shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Fofana was frequently in action, saving the chances of Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Michael Olise and again Cherki.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>But Dou\u00e9 \u2014 whose brother D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9 plays for France \u2014 received a through ball from<br \/>Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 to equalize eight minutes into the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>It was a cinematic homecoming for Ivory Coast&#8217;s current manager and former player, Emerse Fa\u00e9, who was born in Nantes.<\/p>\n<p><span>Deschamps is one of only three men to win the FIFA World Cup as both a player, captaining France in 1998, and as a manager in 2018. \u00a0(Photo by Loic VENANCE \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Many fans waved posters with a photo of Didier Deschamps to thank the coach for a successful reign that began in 2012 and saw France win the 2018 World Cup and reach the 2022 final and will come to an end after this edition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Deschamps had all six players involved in the Champions League final \u2014 Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, Bradley Barcola, Warren Zaire-Emery, D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9, Lucas Hernandez and William Saliba \u2014 on the bench. He used Hernandez, Za\u00efre-Emery and Barcola as substitutes in the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>France will play one more tune-up \u2014 against Northern Ireland on Monday in Lille \u2014 before heading to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>France opens its campaign against Senegal on June 16 in New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Ivory Coast meets Ecuador in its opener in Philadelphia on June 14.<\/p>\n<p><span>Iraq responded to an early goal from Spain, who were without star forwards Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, and held on for a 1-1 draw at the Riazor stadium in A Coruna, northern Spain, on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Ander Gillenea \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Spain \u2014 another World Cup favorite \u2014 was held 1-1 at home by Iraq in La Coru\u00f1a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Playing without forwards Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, Spain took a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute on Ferran Torres' goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Merchas Doski's left-footed strike from just outside the box beat goalkeeper Joan Garcia to equalize before the half-hour mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said he expects Yamal to be fit to face Cape Verde in the team\u2019s World Cup opener in Atlanta on June 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>De la Fuente rested David Raya, Martin Zubimendi and Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz \u2014 who all participated in the Champions League\u2019s final. Recently injured Mikel Merino came on as a substitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Spain is scheduled to play one more tune-up game \u2014 against Peru in Mexico on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Iraq meets Norway in its World Cup opener in Massachusetts on June 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><i>The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Guela Dou\u00e9 scored a goal and set up the winning strike as Ivory Coast surprised France \u2014 and Dou\u00e9&#8217;s brother in the French dugout \u2014 with a 2-1 victory in a World Cup tune-up match Thursday. Amad Diallo fired home Dou\u00e9&#8217;s low cross from the right six minutes from time at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}