Côte d’Ivoire advances for the first time in history after Philly World Cup win over Curaçao

This story originally appeared on WHYY’s Billy Penn.

Philadelphia’s fourth FIFA World Cup game was its third-straight sellout, with the Ivory Coast cruising to a 2-0 win over Curaçao, moving the African nation into the knockout rounds for the first time in its three tournaments.

In the final game of the group stage games, both teams were trying to secure a spot in the round of 32. Ivory Coast coasted in with a win. Curaçao, the smallest nation to ever compete in the World Cup, had to win to pull off one of the biggest Cinderella stories in the tournament’s history.

Joy for Les Éléphants with an eye on New Jersey

The first highlight of the game came from about 100 miles away at New York/New Jersey Stadium (Metlife Stadium, when it’s not being used for the World Cup), when Germany opened the scoring against Ecuador.

Ivory Coast followed suit shortly after that back in Philly, with a goal by Nicolas Pépé, assisted by Yan Diomande after he capitalized on some lax passing

The jumbotron alerted the 68,324 in Philadelphia Stadium that Ecuador had leveled the score in the ninth minute through Nilson Angulo.

Back on the Philly field, Pépé doubled les Éléphants’ lead in the 64th minute, teed up by midfielder Ibrahim Sangaré’s pass.

Then something incredible happened in New Jersey. In the 77th, Ecuadorian forward Gonzalo Plata also found his scoring boots and Ecuador went 2-1 up over Germany.

The results put Germany and Ivory Coast tied at six points at the top of Group E, but Germany took pole position because they won the match between the two teams. Ecuador’s win helped the team to snatch a knockout round spot through a third place finish. Sadly for Curaçao, its historic World Cup debut ends with a draw and a goal against Ecuador.

 Philly’s final group stage game is between Croatia and Ghana, on Saturday at 5 p.m.