Africa Cup of Nations - final

Egypt make history with third Can victory

Article published on the 2010-02-01 Latest update 2010-02-01 12:49 TU

Egypt's players celebrate victory after their African Nations Cup final against Ghana.
Photo: Reuters

Egypt beat Ghana 1-0 in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, becoming the only team in history to have won the tournament three times in a row. Egypt has now won the championship a total of seven times.

After a goal-less first half, Egyptian substitute Mohamed "Gedo" Nagy scored five minutes from time to clinch the title.

"We have the best team in Egypt of all time at the moment," striker Mohamed Zidan told RFI after the match.

"This is one of the only teams in Africa that is always the same players," he explained. "All the teams in Africa they all change at least five, six players in the team from a year to another."

Ghana, badly affected by injury to key players, had surprised many with their progress to the final. Despite an inexperienced line-up, they put in a brave performance.

"We are really happy for being part of the finals," midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah told RFI.

"It wasn't easy but we managed to do our best. We need to take our training seriously and then prepare for the World Cup," he said.

Ghana's young players created more of the limited chances in a cautious game.

Striker Asamoah Gyan, alone up front, came close with several efforts, all of them from outside the box.

Egypt had two opportunities midway through the second half but both Emad Moteab and Zidan were let down by their first touch.

Ghana might have forced the game into extra time with the last attack of the match after a cross from Samuel Inkoom evaded the Egypt defence but fell wide off the chest of substitute Eric Addo.

The win meant Egypt extended their run of unbeaten games at the Cup of Nations to 19.

Captain Ahmed Hassan, named man of the match, became the first player to win four Cup of Nations medals.

"Any team will have to break our records, they'll have to win four tournaments in a row," said Zidan. 

"And I think that's impossible."