By Chris Wright
Madness. Utter madness. Ivory Coast have won their second African Cup of Nations title (the first coming way back in 1992) after beating Ghana 9-8 on penalties in the 2015 final.
The match itself was roughly 120 minutes of goalless pish which just so happened to be followed by one of the most nervy, teeth-chatteringly tense penalty shoot-outs we’ve seen in a good while.
Indeed, it was all too much for poor ol’ Gervinho…
Ivory Coast ‘keeper Boubacar Barry was the star of the show during the shoot-out, largely by way of being an absolute scoundrel throughout: sledging Ghanaian penalty takers, going down with several bouts of strategically timed cramp, picking up a booking for time-wasting and then topping of his sideshow by ramming the winning penalty past his opposite number…
Wow.
And with that the impossibly handsome Herve Renard becomes the first coach to win the African Cup of Nations with two different nations – not bad for a bloke who was once sacked by Cambridge United!
As for Ghana coach Avram Grant, tonight’s shenanigans leave him with yet another runner-up medal to add to his Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup silvers.
We’ll have more when we have it.