Cote d’Ivoire moved up to second in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group with a slender 1-0 win over Sudan at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium in Abidjan on Friday.

Gervinho scored the only goal of the game in the 34th minute to hand the Elephants their first win in Group I.

The three points sees them up to second in the qualifying group with five points, after drawing their opening two games, two points adrift of Gabon who beat Sierra Leone 2-1 earlier in the day.

The loss for Sudan, their second in Group I, leaves them placed third in the standings on three points, followed by Sierra Leone on one point.

It was not a highly entertaining game in Abidjan with Cote d’Ivoire struggling to find the right pass in the final third.

The home side dominated matters for the majority of the match, but were only to find one goal through a clinical finish from striker Gervinho.

Sudan offered very little in attack and rarely threatened the Cote d’Ivoire goal.

Cote d’Ivoire will be boosted by the win ahead of the return leg against Sudan four days later on 29 March 2016 at the Khartoum Stadium.

Cote d’Ivoire starting XI: Sylvain Gbohouo, Diarrassouba Viera, Eric Bailly, Aurier Serge, Constant Djakpa, Seri Jean Michael, Serey Dié, Max Gradel, Gervinho, Salomon Kalou, Wilfried Bony.

Sudan starting XI: Akram Elhadi, Amir Kamal, Abdulatif Saeed, Ramadan Agab, El Taher Elhag, Ali Gafar, Nazer Hamed, Abuaagla Abdalla, Mohamed Hamed, Mudather El Taïb, Bakri Abdelgadir.

Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com