Samaras Ends Ivory Coast National Football Team Games With 2-1 Greece Win

Georgios Samaras’ last-gasp penalty sent Ivory Coast out 2-1, ending ivory coast national football team games at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. A draw against Greece would have been enough for Côte d’Ivoire to advance, but the late kick left Sabri Lamouchi’s side out at the group stage for the third successive tournament.

Samaras Punishes Late

The decisive moment came at the end, when Samaras scored the penalty that delivered Greece a 2-1 win over Côte d’Ivoire. Ivory Coast had already done enough to give themselves a path through the group, and the result flipped that position in one strike.

That loss followed a 2-1 opening win over Japan and a defeat to Colombia, leaving the Ivorians with one win and two losses in Brazil. The defeat to Greece was the one that ended the campaign, and it came after a match where a single point would have carried them on.

Lamouchi's Brazil Group

Lamouchi managed the team in Brazil, where the squad included Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure. The article frames that group as the country’s golden generation, built around players at the peak of their powers, but the results never produced a run beyond the first stage.

Thomas Bamba played in all three of Côte d’Ivoire’s games in Brazil. He later died at the age of 39 in August 2024 after a long battle with cancer, one of the names from that squad whose story has continued to carry weight years later.

Barry And Tiéné

Boubacar Barry spent 15 years in the Ivorian international setup and retired from playing in 2019. He has since worked as a goalkeeper coach at OH Leuven, Gent U21 and Lokeren-Temse.

Siaka Tiéné was also part of the side, and after the tournament he moved to PSG from Toulouse. Côte d’Ivoire now look to Emerse Faé as they try to break the same group-stage pattern with a younger group in North America, but this team’s final Brazil memory remains the 2-1 loss that Samaras turned with one late penalty.