Manchester City Men Toure and Bony Win AFCON Final With Ivory Coast

It seemed as if nothing could separate Ivory Coast and Ghana in today's African Cup of Nations final. After a relatively uneventful 90 minutes of regular time and 30 minutes of extra time, not even penalties looked capable of declaring a winner between the two teams. However, after two goalkeepers taking penalties, Ivory Coast emerged victorious, with Manchester City's Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony among those to lift the trophy.

There were no more than five shots on goal between the two sides in the 120 minutes of the match, with none of those opportunities connecting. Whether that was a byproduct of conservative game plans from each side or just the fatigue of playing so many matches in the tournament, the game was headed to penalties regardless.

Ghana took a resounding lead in the penalty shootout, after new City signing Bony missed the first penalty for Ivory Coast.

Tallo Gadji followed that up with a second miss for Ivory Coast, and it looked like The Elephants were out of contention down 2-0 so quickly. That, however, was the last time Ivory Coast missed from the penalty spot.

Ghana missed their next to penalties, allowing Ivory Coast to even things up at 2-2. After Andre Ayew converted to give Ghana a 3-2 advantage, it was up to the captain Toure to keep the match going, which is just what he did.

Both sides converted their next five penalties, setting the tally at 8-8 with both goalkeepers left to attempt spot kicks. Ghana's Razak was up first, attempting to score on Ivory Coast's Copa Barry.

After Barry's save on Razak, Barry had a chance to win the AFCON for Ivory Coast with the roles reversed.

Ivory Coast won the penalty shootout 9-8, and claimed their first AFCON title since 1992.

Now, with that out of the way, City will be thrilled to have Toure and Bony back in the fold for a City team that desperately need them.