In the group stage of the World Cup, Serbia and Montenegro lost their opening match to joint group favourites the Netherlands 1–0, with Arjen Robben scoring the only goal of the match. They then lost their second match to Argentina 6–0, the side's worst ever international result. With the team's two losses and with Netherlands and Argentina winning both their games, Serbia and Montenegro could no longer qualify for the knockout matches, and was playing for pride alone in their final group match against the Ivory Coast, who had also been mathematically eliminated. Despite having a 2–0 lead for much of the first half, "the Elephants" managed to come back and win 3–2, leaving Serbia and Montenegro with a disappointing 0–0–3 World Cup run to conclude its existence.