The Newcastle United Blog

The Ivory Coast could only draw 2-2 with Morocco in their Group C game in the African qualifying stages,  for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Cheick Tiote – played the whole game against Morocco last night

And Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote picked up his 29th cap for his country,  and it was only a late goal from Hanza Abourazzoik that allowed Morocco to snatch a point from the entertaining game.

The Ivory Coast had twice gone ahead from two of the their Premier League players, and it was free agent Solomon Kalou of Chelsea who gave the Ivorians the lead after just eight minutes.

But just before half  time  Houssibne Kjarja  equalized for Morocco, when he scored from the penalty spot after 41 minutes,  to make it 1-1 at the half.

And then on 60 minutes the Ivory Coast went ahead again, and this time it was Manchester City center-back Kolo Toure who put the ball in back of the net,  but then a late equalizer after 89 minutes from Hanza Abourazzouk,  got a point for  the Moroccan side.

Cheick played the whole game,  and like Newcastle striker Papiss Cisse yesterday for Senegal, the Newcastle  midfielder  received a yellow card.

The point puts Ivory Coast top of Group C with 4 points, and Morocco are currently in second place with 2 points from their two games, and the other game in the group will be played today between Gambia and Tanzania.

So after two games played in their Groups,  both Senegal and the Ivory Coast lead their groups with a win and a draw from their games.

And Germany were a little lucky to get the 1-0 win against Portugal in the Euro 2012 Championships last night.

It was a good header from Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez after 73 minutes that got the Germans the win, and that followed the first shock result of the tournament, when Denmark beat Holland 1-0, with a goal after 23 minutes from Krohn-Dehli, in the other Group B game.

Comments welcome.