Hervé Renard stands by his choices after Ivory Coast’s defeat to Cameroon

The Elephants’ head coach had decided to reshuffle his starting XI for this friendly match against the Indomitable Lions on Saturday 3 October at the Ebimpé Olympic Stadium in Abidjan.

However, Ivory Coast, who had enjoyed a perfect start with two wins from two matches in the first two matchdays of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, suffered a defeat. The Elephants were beaten 1–0 in front of their home crowd in Abidjan.

After the match, Hervé Renard stood by the choices he made in his starting line-up. The French manager acknowledged that he had chosen to take risks in order to give certain players some playing time.

“I took risks with the starting eleven because it was the only opportunity to try out the new players; I take responsibility for the risks I took, that’s part of my job. ”

Yahia Fofana, Franck Kessie, Yan Diomandé, Evan Ndicka, Elye Wahi and Malick Yalcouyé were all left on the bench. However, the new starting XI tested by Hervé Renard did not bear fruit for Ivory Coast.