Wilfried Bony and Yaya Toure to miss crucial Chelsea clash On Saturday

Manuel Pellegrini will have to wait. His midfield talisman and his expensive new signing are staying in Equatorial Guinea a little longer.

They are both yet to impress at this Africa Cup of Nations, but Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony are into the quarter-finals to face Algeria, rather than flying back to England to play Chelsea.

But it was not down to a significant contribution from either man that the Ivory Coast progressed. Indeed, Toure was withdrawn 10 minutes from time, with a possibly worrying injury.

But progress was ensure by Max Gradel, who won the game with a goal that could easily be the best we see all tournament.

Having robbed Jerome Guihoata of possession on the left wing, the former Leeds winger cut inside and lashed a vicious shot at goal from 25 yards. The pace, swerve and accuracy of the shot saw it beat the otherwise excellent Joseph Ondoa, finding the corner of the net beyond the despairing goalkeeper's dive.

Ivory Coast, ahead for the first time in the competition, sat back on their lead, inviting pressure from a Cameroon side who knew that defeat would see them crash out.

But aside from a flurry of chances late in the first half, the previously leaky Ivorian defence held firm. And they should really have wrapped the game up on the break, Serge Aurier firing meekly at Ondoa before City's new striker fluffed a chance to seal the win.

In Bony's defence he did brilliantly to hold off the scarcely legal challenge of Nicolas Nkoulou, to get his shot away, but having escaped the defender's clutches his finish was not of the standard you would expect from a £28million forward.

And his team-mates seemed determined to prove him right, producing comfortably their most incisive football of the tournament so far, against what, on paper at least, ought to have been their toughest opponents.

Source: Sportsmail
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