NELSPRUIT, South Africa (AFP) Skipper Didier Drogba was in a realistic mood after Ivory Coast came up short in their improbable goal pursuit against North Korea in their bid for a last 16 spot at the World Cup here yesterday.

Setting out needing victory by nine goals to nudge Portugal from the knock-out round, Ivory Coast could only muster a 3-0 win over the already eliminated North Korea in their Group G match at the Mbombela Stadium.

For the second straight World Cup, the 'Elephants' of Ivory Coast bumped into another hot group and are on their way out again at the first-round stage.

Four years ago in Germany, it was Argentina, Netherlands and Serbia/ Montenegro and this time they were placed

in another 'Group of Death' along with Brazil and Portugal.

"We are disappointed, but not too disappointed in a group like this with teams like Brazil and Portugal," the Chelsea superstar striker said.

"We have a good team and good players but they are better than us really.

"Maybe we can be disappointed at not getting second spot this time, but overall we can't be too disappointed.

"If we were in a better group, we would have gone through. We are unlucky to be in tough groups at both our World Cups, but to even play at the World Cup twice in a row

is fantastic.

"To play Brazil and Portugal is like a dream for a country like ours. We were lucky to play against those nations."

The Ivorians drew 0-0 with Portugal in their opening game and lost 3-1 to Brazil.

Drogba said if his team had a bit more composure in front of goal they may have scored more goals against North Korea, but it would have been all academic.

"We played good and we had a lot of chances," he said. "If we were a little calmer and took the right decisions, we could have scored more.

"Our World Cup is over but we can be proud of what we did against Brazil and Portugal. It was difficult for us to go through, but at least the respective FIFA rankings was proved right today," the Chelsea frontman concluded.