Forced to play almost an hour of their Group B clash down a man after the 34th minute dismissal of defender Nick Forrester for a second caution, the young New Zealand team worked hard to blunt the pace and power shown by the African side.
Moussa Bakayoko scored a goal in each half for a Cóte d’Ivoire team which exploited their numerical advantage well, moving the ball quickly in the second half, stretching the New Zealand defensive unit and adding a third goal in the dying stages through Meite Yakou.
Facing a 1-0 deficit provided by Bakayoko’s 25th minute tap in at the back post, the key moment for the Young All Whites came 11 minutes before the break when Forrester earned his second yellow card of the match for a late challenge on the goalscorer on edge of his own area.
From that point Cóte d’Ivoire stepped up their possession with their individual speed and strength proving tough to deal with.
But, despite their territorial and possession dominance, the African side were unable to create regular, clear scoring chances in the first period with the Young All Whites rearguard, led by skipper Adam Mitchell, defending well to limit their opponents to shots from distance or contested moments in the penalty area.
Bakayoko struck his second three minutes into the second period after a well-worked move saw the Ivorian finish from a byline cutback, but the New Zealanders continued to work hard to limit the number of quality scoring opportunities as Mitchell and goalkeeper Zac Speedy stood tall.
Against a tiring side with time winding down, Yakou completed the job as he found enough space in the penalty area to head beyond Speedy from close range in the 87th minute.
The Young All Whites’ best moment came via striker Stuart Holthusen who forced a sharp low save from Cóte d’Ivoire goalkeeper Seck Diabagate with a driven effort from the edge the area in the 14th minute.
Cóte d’Ivoire will now hope to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament via one of the third-placed group slots after Uruguay claimed a 2-1 win over Italy in the other Group B match on Thursday seeing both teams progress to the next stage of the event in the United Arab Emirates.
FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013
Group B

New Zealand 0 Cóte d’Ivoire 3 (Moussa Bakayoko 25′, 48′, Meite Yakou 87′)
HT: 0-1
Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium
Abu Dhabi
New Zealand: 1-Zac SPEEDY (GK), 3-Cory BROWN, 4-Nick FORRESTER, 5-Adam MITCHELL (capt), 7-Alex RUFER (16-Tamupiwa DIMAIRO 85′), 8-Michael DEN HEIJER, 10-Matthew RIDENTON, 11-Monty PATTERSON (15-Andre DE JONG, 45′) 13-Spiros AGATHOS, 14-Stuart HOLTHUSEN, 18-Andrew BLAKE (19-Judd BAKER 45′)
Subs not used: 2– Riley KELLIHER, 6– Alex PALZEVIC, 9– Elijah NEBLETT, 12– Oliver SAIL, 17– Nick SUGDEN, 20– Clayton LEWIS, 21– Samuel COPP
Coach: Darren Bazeley
Story courtesy New Zealand Football click here for more www.nzfootball.co.nz .