The Elephants easily beat North Korea 3-0 on Friday but their victory was not enough to lift them to the second round in their second World Cup participation.

They finished third in Group G with four points, one behind Portugal and three behind leaders and five-time world champions Brazil.

"The players should be very proud of themselves and the country should be very proud of them," Ivory Coast's Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson told reporters.

"It's a good team and I think the future belongs to this country … absolutely. The future for this country, football-wise, is great."

Ivory Coast needed to bridge a nine-goal gap with Portugal to stand any chance of qualifying for the knockout phase. They were also hoping Brazil would beat Portugal.

However, their hopes vanished as they could only score three goals against North Korea after wasting a plenty of clear-cut opportunities while Brazil and Portugal played out a dull goalless draw.

Something Fantastic

"If we were a little bit more calm maybe we could have scored more goals," striker Didier Drogba, who scored Ivory Coast's only goal in their 3-1 defeat by Brazil, said.

"Our world cup is over today but we can be proud of what we did against Portugal and what we did against Brazil and today.

"We are disappointed but we can't be too disappointed when you are in a group like this with Portugal and Brazil.

"For a country like Ivory Coast to be in the world cup twice in a row is something fantastic. We were unlucky but at the same time we are happy," the Chelsea striker, who helped the English side win the domestic double last season, added.

World Cup hosts South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria and Algeria also failed to make it to the second round.

Nations Cup runners-up Ghana are the only African team to have booked a last-16 berth.

They will face the United States, who finished on top of Group C, on Saturday.