Egypt have won a record fifth African Cup of Nations title after beating the ‘Elephants’ of the Ivory Coast, winning 4-2 in the penalty shootout after extra-time saw the scores level at 0-0.

The hero of the day for Egypt was their goalkeeper Essam Al Hadari being the man who saved Bakary Kone’s shot, and with Chelsea striker Didier Drogba missing to secure the record breaking win for the hosts.

The African Cup of Nations final saw the hosts, Egypt face the ‘Elephants’ of the Ivory Coast without the services of their star striker Mido, who was banned by the Egypt FA for six months after his tirade against the Egypt head coach Hassan Shehata after being substituted in the semi-final.

Both teams came out with intent, and there was no lack of passion from the start, with the first yellow-card being issued within seconds of the start

Egypt’s Amr Zaki had the first chance of the game when he sprung onto a loose ball, but he shot wide of the goal.

Then a free kick awarded to the Egyptians was in the perfect territory for Abou Treka, who’s effort went past the wall, but also just wide of the goal-post.

The Ivory Coast had a chance themselves seconds later with a free kick in an almost identical position, but that too missed, going over the bar.

Although there was a constant flow of play, neither side were really making any inroads into either oppositions defence, and each attack was soon broken down by the defenders.

The loss of one of their defensive rocks, Wael Gomaa to injury in the 20th for Egypt was a blow for the hosts, and he was replaced with Ahmed Fathi, a defensive midfielder, and Mohamed Barakat was moved into central defence which made the Egyptian back-line very hard to break down, but brol

Arsenal’s Kolo Toure, and Arthur Boka were both very strong in the Ivorian defence, and it was a case of end-to-end pinball, but with the hosts having the slight advantage in possession.

Zaki had another in the 35th with another attempt that went wide after the Ivorians had a moment of defensive confusion, but failed to capitalise after having teed it up perfectly for himself.

Kanga Akale of Auxerre, even though having his right knee heavily strapped, did his best to unravel the host’s defence, and as the first half was drawing to a close, the Elephants started to dominate, with a cross from Akale to Kolo Toure, whose header would have opened the scoring had it been on target.

Amr Zaki had a great chance plucked away from him at the other end by the Ivory Coast keeper Tizie minutes later, after Tizie had dived acrobatically to push away a cross just seconds before, and then Akale yet again, had a powerful shot straight at the Egypt keeper Essam Al Hadari, who managed to keep hold of it.

After a poor first half, the second half started off brightly with both Didier Drogba, and Abou Treka having chances at either end in the opening two minutes of the start, and both teams showing far more intent.

Amr Zaki was without doubt the most active player in the Egypt team, and had a couple of great chances of his own, but failed to get the ball on target on any of his attempts.

Arsenal’s Emmanuel Eboue made a fantastic tackle against Abou Treka, which was as clean and good as any tackle you will ever see, which was not only ruled against him, but to add insult to injury ended up receiving a yellow card from the referee, and it was lucky that nothing came from the resulting free kick.

Didier Drogba was having a quiet game, and that was partly due to the lack of support from his players, but the substitution of Bonaventure Kalou seemed to spur the Chelsea striker into action.

It was Drogba who played in a ball, which saw Emmanuel Eboue slice a shot at the far-post, which should have been on target, but with fifteen minutes to go Drogba, unmarked, somehow missed an open goal opportunity from just yards from goal, and somehow sliced the ball over the bar.

Abdel Waha whizzed in a shot for the Egyptians, which could have caused problems for the Elephants’ defence, but it fizzed just wide of Tizie’s goal.

There was major drama with 8 minutes to go, with a disallowed goal for Egypt, after Abou Treka’s strike was only parried by Tizie, and the resulting melee saw the ball bundled in to the Cote D’Ivoire goal by Amr Zaki, only to correctly be ruled-out for offside, to the relief of the Ivorian keeper Tizie.

This led to a flurry of attempts from both sides in the closing minutes of normal time, with both sides coming close, but the shots were often from long-range, and hardly troubled either keeper.

Drogba had a stretched effort in injury time, but failed to get his foot round the ball with the Egypt keeper bearing down on him.

That was it for play in normal time, and the game went to extra-time goalless, but with the Ivory Coast seeming to have the upper hand.

Extra time continued in the same vein, with both teams attacking, and in the sixth minute of injury time a contentious penalty was awarded to Egypt, with Blaise Kossi Kouassi being adjudged to have been to blame, much to the dismay of the Ivorian players, and with replays suggesting that both players were equally challenging for the ball.

In the aftermath of the awarding of the penalty Didier Drogba was shown a yellow card for dissent by the referee.

Ahmed Hassan stepped up to take the spot-kick for Egypt and hit the ball low to his left, with Jean-Jacques Tizie going the right way to save, but the ball hit the post, and out to safety, and keeping the scores level.

Bakary Kone had a stunning shot flicked over by Al Hadari minutes later for a corner, but the resulting corner came to nothing, with Al Hadari holding on, and in the second half of extra time, Kone had another chance but was bundled off the ball as he was preparing to shoot.

Egypt didn’t look like achieving much, and seemed content to play the ball around, with the only real attempt being from Mohamed Shawky’s side-footed attempt from the edge of the area towards the Ivorian goal but it was straight at Jean-Jacques Tizie.

It all slowed down in the dying minutes of the game, but with both teams looking tired, and as play drew to close it seemed inevitable that it would go to penalties, the sixth time the African Cup of Nations final has gone to penalties.

The penalty shootout went Egypt’s way, with Didier Drogba missing the Ivory Coast’s first penalty, and Bakary Kone has his penalty saved by Al Hadari. But, although Abdelhalim Ali put the ball wide for Egypt, Mohamed Aboutrika scored the winning penalty for Egypt, to win the African Cup of Nations for Egypt.