Kolo Toure, vice-captain of the side, told New African magazine in April he was under no illusions about the work ahead if things were to improve before South Africa.

“We have failed as a team and we keep failing,” he said. “I have failed; we have all failed. We have good players like Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure but we need to gel.

“It is not important to have great players but it is important to have a great team and at the moment we don’t have that. We are still searching for that.

“We have individuals but as a team we are very weak at the moment.”