African Cup of Nations: Ivory Coast beat Ghana after eleven series of penalty shootout, Ivory Coast - Ghana 0-0 (pen. 9-8)

African Cup of Nations – Final:

Ivory Coast won their second African Cup of Nations title in history. They beat Ghana in final game, after regular time score was 0-0 and it took eleven series of penalty shots to determine the winner. At the end Ivory Coast won 9-8.

Both of the nations didn’t win African Cup of Nation for a long time, last time Ivory Coast won was in 1992 and Ghana won in 1982. This was Ivory Coast 4^th final game from which they won 2, for Ghana this was 9^th finals and they won 4 African Cup of Nations. Interesting thing is that last time Ivory Coast manages to get a title these two nations were played in final and also that time Ivory Coast won after penalty shootout 11-10.

During the regular time we didn’t see much of a soccer, two nations mostly battle over the middle of the field without any good goal chances. Probably the best chance in the game was for Ghana when Christian Atsu shot hit the woodwork. Extra times weren’t any different without any real goal chances. Ghana was a slightly better team with 52% ball possession and with 16 shots toward Ivory Coast goal, but most of those shots were blocked so they end up with 0 shots in-goal frame. Ivory Coast manages to have 7 goal attempts and only 1 in the goal frame.

Everything interesting that happened in this final happened after the extra time and in penalty shootout series. After first two series Ghana was leading 2-0 for Ghana goals were scored by Mubara Wakaso and Jordan Ayew and for Ivory Coast Wilfried Bony and Junior Tallo missed their penalties. But then in next two series we saw two miss from Ghana Afriyie Acquah and Frank Acheampong and two goals for Ivory Coast Serge Aurier and Seydou Doumbia. In next 6 series players from both national teams were successful in scoring for Ghana that was Andre Ayew, Jonathan Mensah, Emmanuel Badu, Harrison Afful, Abdul Baba and John Boye and for Ivory Coast Yaya Toure, Salomon Kalou, Kolo Toure, Wilfried Kanon, Eric Bailly and Serey Die. It comes to 11 series and “battle of goalkeepers”. First Ivory Coast goalkeeper Boubacar Barry manage to save shot from Razmak Brimah Ghana goalkeeper and then he manage to score last penalty shot for the win and new African Cup of Nations title for Ivory Coast.

African Cup Of Nations: Ivory Coast – Ghana 0-0 (pen. 9-8), Match Center

African Cup of Nations: Ivory Coast beat Ghana after eleven series of penalty shootout, Ivory Coast - Ghana 0-0 (pen. 9-8)