After playing in their third final in nine years, Ivory Coast won their second Africa Cup of Nations title on penalties after a goalless draw with Ghana, in a dramatic repeat of the Senegal 92 nation’s cup final.
Goalkeeper Boubacar Barry saved from his opposite number and then scored the winning spot-kick to seal the trophy that have been elusive the Ivorian’s so call golden generation.
Barry, who was playing because of injury to Sylvain Gbohouo, had seemed to be suffering from cramp in the shoot-out.
But the 35-year-old’s heroics won the day and gave the Ivorians a 9-8 victory and only their second Nations Cup title.
The big names – Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure and Bony, and Ghana’s Ayew and Asamoah Gyan – failed to have a decisive influence on the game, which never really flowed.
This was the sixth time in the last 12 tournaments that the final had gone to penalties.
Ivory Coast had lost two of them, in 2006 to Egypt and 2012 to Zambia, when current Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard was in charge of the winning team.
Frenchman Renard has become the first coach to win two Africa Cup of Nations with different countries.
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