Black Stars lose painfully on penalties in AFCON 2015 final

…And that’s how the cookie crumbles. Ghana loses in penalty shoot-outs against Cote d’Ivoire in African Cup of Nations final in Equatorial Guinea.

After a 120-minute tough encounter, the Black Stars became inconsolable and heartbroken as a back-to-back penalty shoot-out ended their quest to end the 33-year AFCON trophy drought.

It all ended with a final penalty strike by goalkeepers with the Ghanaian goalkeeper, Razak Brimah, missing his chance while his Ivorian counterpart, Barry, ended the 23-year thirst for trophy for Ivorians with a superb goal beyond the reach of Razak’s grips.

The game ended 9-8 for the Elephants of La Cote d’Ivoire, a repetition of what happened in 1992, which was won 11-10 on penalties by the Elephants.

The last time these sides met in AFCON was in 2010, which Côte d'Ivoire won 3-1 at the group stage.

The Elephants have reached their third AFCON final in the last six editions. They lost the 2006 and 2012 finals on penalties while the Black Stars have won this continental showpiece on 4 occasions and became the first nation to win the trophy for keeps, but have failed to win the title since they last won it in 1982.

This becomes the second AFCON trophy for Cote d’Ivoire since 1992, led by Yaya Toure.