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Ivory Coast win AFCON final on penalties

Phil HumphreysFebruary 8, 2015

The Elephants recovered from missing their first two spot kicks to claim their second Africa Cup of Nations after a drab final went to penalties. Neither side were able to score in normal and extra time.

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Ivory Coast players celebrate winning the Africa Cup
Image: Reuters

The 0-0 scoreline in Bata followed the shootout win for DR Congo in the play-off for third place on Saturday, and meant that no goals were scored in the final four hours of a tournament which became mired in controversy.

Only Ivory Coast could muster a single shot on target in 120 minutes on Sunday as the two star sides of African football cancelled each other out. It was left to enigmatic goalkeeper Boubacar Barry to register the winning penalty after 22 spot kicks from both teams.

The victory is the crowning achievement to date for what many see as a 'golden generation' for the Elephants, with the likes of Yaya Toure and Gervinho, among others, in their ranks.

The match was a repeat of the 1992 final won 11-10 on penalties by the Elephants but history did not look like repeating itself when first Manchester City's new 35 million euro ($39 million) man Wilfried Bony and then Junior Tallo missed their kicks.

Ivory Coast goalkeeper Boubacar Barry went down with cramp after his side had pulled the shootout back to 2-2 following two glaring Ghana misses.

A fine one-handed save from Barry at 8-8 handed the initiative to Ivory Coast and the ‘keeper was booked for his theatrics as he prepared to take the winning kick, which he stroked into the top right corner.

It gave Ivory Coast their second title in their fourth final having lost to Zambia in 2012 and to Egypt in 2006.

Ghana's midfielder Andre Ayew challenges Ivory Coast's defender Serge Aurier
Ghana's midfielder Andre Ayew challenges Ivory Coast's defender Serge AurierImage: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

Incident-free final

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will be satisfied that Sunday's game also passed without incident off the pitch following the violence which marred Ghana's semifinal win over the hosts, Equatorial Guinea.

Days earlier, the quarterfinal between Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia was marred by ugly scenes at the end of the fixture, which the hosts won 2-1. Equatorial Guinea were then fined $100,000 (80,000 euros) for their part in the trouble that interrupted the semifinal win against Ghana where 14 fans were hospitalized.

Equatorial guinea was only hosting the three-week long tournament after Morocco was stripped of the staging rights in November 2011 after demanding it be postponed due to fears about it furthering the spread of the Ebola virus.

The Moroccan National Team have since been banned from competing in the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017 and 2019 and fined $1 million (880,000 euros) by the Confederation of African football (CAF) for withdrawing and refusing to host the tournament.