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Egypt retain African crown

Egypt this morning successfully defended its Africa Cup of Nations title after beating Cameroon by a lone goal scored in the second half.

Egypt won the last tournament when it was the host but they proved that that win was no fluke as they beat the determined Cameroonian side who could not deal with the Pharaoh's fast free flowing football.

This was Egypt's record sixth crown and ironically had Cameroon won they would have equaled Egypt previous of a record five titles.

Egypt scored in the second half when Mohamed Aboutrika received a pass from Mohamed Zidan when he tussled the ball off Rigobert Song.

I think Carlos Kameni, the goalkeeper, did very well to make sure that the match was goalless up to that stage because he made a number of crucial saves to thwart the Pharoah's attacks.

I am now hoping to see Egypt qualify for the 2010 World Cup and see what they can do at the world stage. I still think that their toughest test was against Ivory Coast but they easily passed that one and now the next stage should be the World Cup.

Meanwhile in the third place playoff match hosts Ghana won a consolation third place when they beat Ivory Coast 4-1. Credit to both teams as they fielded strong teams for this bronze medal match.

From conceding no goal at all up to the semi-finals, Ivory Coast conceded 8 goals in their last two matches of the tournament and that should be cause for concern for a team with so much potential.

This African Nations Cup finished without a single match of the knockout phase going into a penalty shoot out plus only one match went into extra time. Its good to see matches settled in normal time of play.

The next tournament will now be in Angola in two years time and I hope it will be a repeat of Ghana 2008 in terms of success and I hope that Angola will also produce a colourful and successful tournament like Ghana did.

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