Drogba hopes to avoid England

Drogba: Hopes to avoid big teams

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• Salomon Kalou

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Didier Drogba hopes Ivory Coast will avoid the likes of England in the draw for the 2010 World Cup, but team-mate Salomon Kalou is keen to face Fabio Capello's side.

Ivory Coast are eagerly awaiting Friday's draw for the group phase in South Africa next summer, with the Elephants hoping for better fortune than four years ago.

For the 2006 tournament in Germany, Ivory Coast were drawn alongside traditional heavyweights Argentina and Holland, and finished third in their group ahead of Serbia & Montenegro.

More is expected of Drogba and co at next year's tournament, although the Chelsea striker wants a slightly easier test in the first round.

"We tried to fight, but had no chance to go through," said Drogba with regard to 2006. "Hopefully we will be more lucky this time."

He also commented that he hopes 'to avoid all the big teams like Brazil, Germany and England'.

Weird

However, Drogba's club and international colleague Kalou is eager to play England and claims his fellow striker feels the same way.

Kalou said: "I've talked about drawing England with Didier and we agreed it would be nice to play them. They are a top team.

"I think England can win the World Cup because they have good players. They can make an impact.

"England are playing better now. They have a coach in Fabio Capello who is very hard on the players.

"The coach makes them respect everything and you need that sometimes in football because it's the little things that make the difference.

"It would be good to play against Cole, Lampard and Terry. It would be a little bit weird to play against them, but that's football."