Nicolas Pepe opened the door in the 7th minute and slammed it shut again in the 64th, a brace so calm it could have been filed in triplicate, while Ivory Coast played the kind of controlled, low-blood-pressure football that wins knockout tickets but rarely sells highlight reels.

Curacao showed up with energy and intent yet kept arriving at the final third like a tourist who forgot the address, plenty of buildup and not a single shot that made the keeper actually work, which is the footballing equivalent of writing a great email and never hitting send.

No red cards, no VAR theatrics, no late chaos, just a match that managed its own pulse from the seventh minute onward, watchable and competent but never the classic the neutral was secretly hoping for.