2017 Africa Cup of Nations final

The Africa Cup of Nations, organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), is the primary international association football competition for African national teams. The 2017 tournament was the 31st edition since its inauguration in 1957. The hosts were Gabon, who were awarded the rights by CAF after original hosts Libya had to withdraw due to the civil war in that country. The tournament consisted of sixteen teams who had qualified for the event, divided into four round-robin groups consisting of four teams. The two top teams from each group advanced to a knock-out phase. Egypt were appearing in their 23rd tournament, and their 9th final. They had previously won seven (1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010) and lost the 1962 final against Ethiopia at the Hailé Sélassié Stadium in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Cameroon were appearing in their 18th tournament, and their 7th final. They had previously won four (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002) and lost two (1986, 2008). Egypt and Cameroon had met in two Africa Cup of Nations finals before, in 1986 and 2008. Egypt won both of those finals. At the start of the tournament, Egypt were ranked 3rd among African nations in the FIFA World Rankings (35th in the world), while Cameroon were 12th (62nd in the world). ==Route to the final==

Cameroon Cameroon began their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations campaign in Group A, alongside Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau and the hosts Gabon. Their opening game took place on 14 January 2017, against Burkina Faso. Cameroon took the lead after 35 minutes through a free kick by Benjamin Moukandjo, and then wasted two chances to extend their lead. Burkina Faso equalised in the 75th minute through a close-range goal from Issoufou Dayo, and the match finished as a 1–1 draw. In their second game Cameroon faced Guinea-Bissau, who were playing in their first Africa Cup of Nations and had only ever won four competitive matches in their history. Cameroon equalised after half time, with Sébastien Siani scoring from outside the penalty area, and a Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui goal on 78 minutes gave them the win. Cameroon's quarter-final was at the Stade de Franceville against Senegal on 28 January. Senegal had several chances during the game, The first eight penalties were all scored, making it 4–4, but Mané then missed his kick. Vincent Aboubakar scored for Cameroon, to give them a place in the semi-final. This was again held in Franceville, on 2 February against Ghana. The match remained goalless until 72 minutes, with BBC Sport reporter Saj Chowdhury saying that Ghana had "underwhelmed against a side who were clear second favourites going into the match". Cameroon then broke the deadlock, Ngadeu-Ngadjui scoring after poor defending by Ghana. Christian Bassogog added a second goal in the final minute to seal a 2–0 win and a place in the final. Egypt Egypt's campaign commenced in the group stage, competing in Group D along with Ghana, Mali and Uganda. In their first match, played on 17 January 2017, they faced Mali. The game finished 0–0 with few scoring chances for either side. The best chance of the game was a header by Egypt's Marwan Mohsen, which was saved by Mali goalkeeper Oumar Sissoko. Mohamed Elneny also had two chances to score for Egypt, which he wasted, while Ousmane Coulibaly had a chance to seal a win for Mali late on, but his close-range header went over the crossbar. Egypt's second game was against Uganda in Port-Gentil on 21 January. On what reporters for Eurosport described as a "pitch of terrible quality", Egypt dominated the early part of the match as Trézéguet and Tarek Hamed both missed opportunities to take the lead. Uganda improved as the game progressed, and believed that they had scored after 55 minutes through Joseph Ochaya, but the goal was disallowed due to an offside decision. Egypt reasserted their dominance towards the end of the match, and were rewarded when Abdallah El Said, who had come on as a substitute, scored with a powerful shot from a cross by Mohamed Salah. Their final group game was against Ghana, and a Salah free kick after 10 minutes was sufficient to win the game 1–0. Egypt qualified as group winners, with Ghana in second place. Egypt faced Morocco in the quarter-final, on 29 January in Port-Gentil. Both teams had chances during the game, with Moroccan goalkeeper Munir Mohamedi twice saving from Salah and Aziz Bouhaddouz, Romain Saïss and Mbark Boussoufa missing opportunities for Morocco. With the match seemingly heading for extra time, substitute Mahmoud Abdel-Moneim scored after 87 minutes to seal a 1–0 win for Egypt. Their semi-final was against Burkina Faso, on 1 February in Libreville. Burkina Faso started the game stronger than Egypt, but it was Egypt who opened the scoring as Salah scored into the top corner of the goal after 66 minutes. Their lead lasted only 8 minutes, as Aristide Bancé scored an equaliser with a right-footed volley. The game finished 1–1 after 90 minutes, and went to penalties after no further goals were scored in extra time. Egypt missed their first penalty, with Burkina Faso goalkeeper Hervé Koffi saving El Said's strike. Burkina Faso scored their first three penalties, but Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary saved the fourth from his opposite number Koffi, to leave the score at 3–3. Amr Warda scored Egypt's fifth penalty, leaving Bertrand Traoré having to score to keep Burkina Faso in the tie. El-Hadary saved again, earning Egypt a 4–3 win and a place in the final. ==Match==

First half The match began at 8 pm local time (7 pm UTC) on 5 February 2017 at Libreville's Stade de l'Amitié, in front of 38,250 supporters. The weather at Libreville airport, from the stadium, was partly cloudy at the time of kick off with a temperature of and 84% humidity. Egypt wore red, white and black kits, while Cameroon were in green, red and yellow. The referee was Janny Sikazwe of Zambia. Egypt started the match with most of the possession, and almost opened the scoring on 2 minutes when El Said's shot from inside the penalty area was saved by Ondoa. Cameroon's first shot came on 7 minutes, from Siani, but it was easily saved by El Hadary. Cameroon began to have more of the possession after the quarter-hour, and Bassogog had a half-chance outside the penalty area which he shot high and wide. Elneny received the ball from Salah, who had cut in from the right, and shot right-footed high to the roof of the net past Ondoa on his left side. Adolphe Teikeu was replaced by Nicolas Nkoulou after 31 minutes, after sustaining a groin injury. Shortly afterwards, Cameroon almost scored when El Hadary failed to claim a cross, but the Egyptian defence was able to clear. Having started the second half defensively, Egypt struggled to react after the goal went in against them. They made a substitution in the 66th minute, Ramadan Sobhi coming on for Trézéguet. Cameroon continued to have the best chances, including a header by Nkoulou from a corner in the 69th minute, which went over the top of the goal. One minute later they won another corner, when Moukandjo's shot was deflected behind. Ngadeu could not get the ball past El Hadary, however. Egypt argued that Aboubakar's foot had been too high when lobbing it over Gabr, but the goal was given. There was some fighting among the players 2 minutes into injury time, as Collins Fai was penalised for a foul and Ondoa attempted to waste time. Egypt's free kick was hit over the bar by Elneny. Bassogog was injured in the final minute of injury time, with Cameroon having no remaining substitutes, but they held on to win the game 2–1. • 90 minutes • 30 minutes of extra time if necessary • Penalty shoot-out if scores still level • Maximum of three substitutions Statistics ==Aftermath==

In summarising the "thrilling, edgy" final, BBC Sport pundits noted that Egypt started comfortably, but allowed their opponents to "come at them" in the second half. Cameroon limited Egypt to mostly playing long balls, and their increasing pressure meant that the Egyptian players succumbed to fatigue in the closing stages of the match. Moukandjo, Cameroon's captain, was named as the man of the match, while his team-mates Bassogog and Ondoa were voted the tournament's best player and best goalkeeper respectively. As winners, they went on to represent CAF at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. They were eliminated in the group phase, finishing bottom of Group B, having lost two games and drawn one. ==See also==