Sabri Lamouchi is the latest World Cup coach to throw in the towel following Ivory Coast’s harsh elimination at the expense of Greece on Tuesday.
Ivory Coast were withing minutes of advancing to the knock-out stages in their third attempt before Giorgios Samaras scored from the penalty spot, after Chieck Tiotte impeded the Celtic striker.
Despite his side finishing third with three points, the French coach insists he has made the right decision to quit following a disappointing campaign in Brazil in the wake of their quarter-final loss to Nigeria at last year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
“My contract comes to an end at this World Cup and there will be no epilogue and you can understand well as to why,” the former France international said.
“It is logical as we did no do well at last year’s Africa Cup of Nations or at the World Cup finals.”
Andreas Samaris pulled Greece ahead few minutes to the break, but Wilfried Bony leveled for ‘The Elephants’ in the second-half, before Samaras doused silent the Africans in Fortaleza with a killer goal in stoppage time.
Lamouchi says “he is disappointed” about the loss but bear no grudges with the referee for awarding the late penalty.
“I have put a lot of time and effort into the past two years, but unfortunately my story with Cote d’Ivoire ends this evening,” he added.
“The outcome is a cruel one but the Greeks did not steal this victory.
“I am very disappointed and sad, and also for the players and the Ivorian people. However, my career carries on and there will be other defeats, though I would have liked this adventure to finish in a different fashion.”
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