Ivory Coast beaten in final AFCON warm-up

The Ivory Coast look to have work to do to justify their status as Africa Cup of Nations favourites following a 2-0 loss to Sweden in their final warm-up game on Thursday.

Herve Renard named a strong side for the meeting in Abu Dhabi, with the likes of Gervinho, Yaya Toure and his new Manchester City team-mate Wilfried Bony all named in the starting XI.

However, they were punished for failing to take their chances by a clinical Sweden side.

After dictating play in the first half, Gervinho should have opened the scoring for the Ivory Coast in the early stages of the second, but the Roma man fired into the side netting from close range having cleverly worked his way into the area.

And Renard's side were made to pay for their profligacy as midfielder Johan Martensson darted in from the left and slammed home an emphatic right-footed finish in the 65th minute to put Sweden ahead.

Seydou Doumbia spurned a gilt-edged chance to restore parity when he could only spoon the ball over the crossbar with the goal at his mercy following good work from Max Gradel.

Sweden then made the game safe three minutes from time through Marcus Rohden's strike.

The Elfsborg midfielder fired a half-volley into the bottom-right corner from Niklas Barkroth's lay-off.

The Ivory Coast now travel to Equatorial Guinea for the AFCON and will begin their campaign for a second African title next Tuesday in Malabo against Guinea.

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