Au Revoir Cote d'Ivoire, DPR Korea, Swiss & Honduras

>Groups G and H have been decided at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, with teams from Africa, Asia, Europe and Central America all heading home.

The success of the South American nations continued with Brazil and Chile progressing, while World Cup favourites Spain got through but will face Iberian neighbours Portugal next.

But the departed is the focus here as the post-mortems begin.

Au Revoir Cote d’Ivoire

Ivory Coast 0 Portugal 0’‘Ivory Coast 1 Brazil 3'’Ivory Coast 3 North Korea 0

The Ivory Coast were drawn into the dubbed Group of Death alongside Brazil and Portugal, but it was the same story four years ago, as the Elephants fail to deliver on their potential. Their goalless draw with Portugal in the opener left the group open and in the end Portugal’s thrashing of North Korea made it difficult. There’s some positives to take for Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men though.

Eriksson said: “It is a pity we have to leave because this team is getting better with every training session. But that is life, we are out and we have to accept that. If you look at the three games we have played they should be very proud of themselves and the country should be proud of them.”

Annyong-hi kashipshio North Korea

North Korea 1 Brazil 2’‘North Korea 0 Portugal 7'’North Korea 0 Ivory Coast 3

It started off so brightly for the North Koreans with a strong and organised performance against Brazil where they pushed the mighty South Americans. For a half they continued to fight against Portugal, before conceded six in the second-half of that clash. They simply fell apart beyond that.

North Korea boss Kim Jong-Hun said in the end: “In our second match we conceded a lot of goals to Portugal. As the coach that was a blow to my pride and confidence. During this match we felt it would be important to get a good result and restore the pride and confidence lost in the second match.”

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Auf Wiedersehen Switzerland

Switzerland 1 Spain’‘Switzerland 0 Chile 1'’Switzerland 0 Honduras 0

Like North Korea, the Swiss offered plenty at the beginning of their campaign, but faded away. For Switzerland, after defeating cup favourites Spain, they simply couldn’t find the touch up forward. A harsh red for Valon Behrami against Chile didn’t help, but a two-goal victory over Honduras was needed in their final game and they couldn’t find the net.

Swiss boss Ottmar Hitzfeld rued his side’s inability to cope with the pressure and added: “We failed to deliver our promises after a sensational win over Spain, although we were disadvantaged against Chile (Behrami was sent off). If we had taken a point from that game we would have gone through.”

Adios Honduras

Honduras 0 Chile 1’‘Honduras 0 Spain 2'’Honduras 0 Switzerland

After waiting 28 years to qualify again for the World Cup, Honduras found the going tough and failed to score a goal. Their final third failed to show the killer instinct needed and frustrated in the process. Nevertheless, a draw in their final group game was somewhat of a positive.

Honduras boss Reinaldo Rueda regretted his side’s performance in South Africa, saying: “They really showed courage and brought everything they had. We shouldn’t have waited until the last match to show our talents, we should have done it in the first one.”