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Egypt scored the only goal of the match with 5 minutes remaining, against a resilient Ghana team. The Pharaohs have successfully defended their title and have managed a third consecutive trophy in Angola.

The Al Ittihad striker- Mohamed Gedo scored the winner for his team just before the match could move into extra time. Egypt didn’t create too many chances in the game. Ghana looked more creative than their counterparts and had quite a few chances to take the lead.

Egypt defend their African Cup of Nations Title

Earlier, the Egyptians trashed their archrivals Algeria 4-0 to enter the finals.

Egypt have stretched their record-breaking unbeaten run at the Nations Cup to 19 games after their victory over U-20 Champions, Ghana.

In other African Cup of Nations news, Nigeria downed Algeria 1-0 to secure a 3rd place in the tournament. Victor Obinna scored the only goal early in the second half.

Ivory Coast

Côte d’Ivoire have become the first team to reach the quarter finals in the Africa Cup of Nations. They defeated Ghana 3-1 on Friday.

The Elephants were reduced to 10-men after defender Emmanuel Eboue was red-carded for a tackle from behind on Opoku Agyemang. The other two teams in the Group B – Burkina Faso and Ghana will clash Tuesday to decide the second qualifier from the Group. Togo, the 4th country from the group, withdrew from the tournament after their bus was attacked by terrorists.

Kouassi Yao put the Ivorians ahead midway through the first half.  He scored from a direct free-kick. Ghana pulled one back during stoppage-time through an Asamoah Gyan penalty.

Ivory Coast Captain – Drogba commented:

“We’re all relieved. We were consistent from the start. Even if we had difficulties we succeeded in remaining solid and performing the counter attacks.”

Ghana started with a second rate team with almost eight of the first-choice players missing. Defenders John Pantsil and John Mensah, midfielders Anthony Annan, Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Laryea Kingson and Sulley Muntari and striker Asamoah Gyan.

The driver has been killed and several players were injured when the bus carrying the Togo national football team was ambushed in Angola.

The Togo Football team are in Angola to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins on Sunday. However, after this severe attack the tournament might postponed or called off. Togo may pull out of the tourney after two of their players were injured. The attack lasted for around 15 to 20 minutes. Togolese and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor is safe but is visibly shaken by the terror strike.

Togo National Team

The team will decide whether they want to continue with the tournament or not. Defender Serge Akakpo was injured with about 2 bullets in his back. His condition is said to be stable. The other player injured was goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale, a bullet pierced his kidney.

This terror attack has also cast a shadow over the World Cup finals which are set to be held later this year, in June, in South Africa.

One of the team members commented:

“We had just crossed the border. We had filled in the border formalities and were surrounded by police. Everything was fine. Then there was a powerful burst of gunfire. Everyone dived under the seats and the police fired back.”

“It felt like war had broken out. It’s shocking. When we got off the bus we were asking ourselves what was up. The official in charge of communications also stopped a bullet – he lost a lot of blood.”

Togo are supposed to play Ghana on Monday.

The much awaited African Football event is due to start next month in Angola, on the 10th. Here’s the full fixture list of the tournament:-

ANGOLA v MALI A 10/01/2010 20H:00 Luanda
MALAWI v ALGERIA A 11/01/2010 14H:45 Luanda
COTE D’IVOIRE v B. FASO B 11/01/2010 17H:00 Cabinda
GHANA v TOGO B 11/01/2010 19H:30 Cabinda
EGYPT v NIGERIA C 12/01/2010 17H:00 Benguela
MOZAMBIQUE v BENIN C 12/01/2010 19H:30 Benguela
CAMEROUN v GABON D 13/01/2010 17H:00 Lubango
ZAMBIA v TUNISIA D 13/01/2010 19H:30 Lubango
MALI v ALGERIA A 14/01/2010 17H:00 Luanda
ANGOLA v MALAWI A 14/01/2010 19H:30 Luanda
BURKINA FASO v TOGO B 15/01/2010 17H:00 Cabinda
COTE D’IVOIRE v GHANA B 15/01/2010 19H:30 Cabinda
NIGERIA v BENIN C 16/01/2010 17H:00 Benguela
EGYPT v MOZAMBIQUE C 16/01/2010 19H:30 Benguela
GABON v TUNISIA D 17/01/2010 17H:00 Lubango
CAMEROON v ZAMBIA D 17/01/2010 19H:30 Lubango
ANGOLA v ALGERIA A 18/01/2010 17H:00 Luanda
MALI v MALAWI A 18/01/2010 17H:00 Cabinda
BURKINA FASO v GHANA B 19/01/2010 17H:00 Luanda
COTE D’IVOIRE v TOGO B 19/01/2010 17H:00 Cabinda
EGYPT v BENIN C 20/01/2010 17H:00 Benguela
NIGERIA v MOZAMBIQUE C 20/01/2010 17H:00 Lubango
GABON v ZAMBIA D 21/01/2010 17H:00 Benguela
CAMEROON v TUNISIA D 21/01/2010 17H:00 Lubango

Quarter Finals
1st A v 2nd B 24/01/2010 17H:00 Luanda
1st B v 2nd A 24/01/2010 20H:30 Cabinda
1st C v 2nd D 25/01/2010 17H:00 Benguela
1st D v 2nd C 25/01/2010 20H:30 Lubango

Semi Finals
Winner 25 v Winner 28 28/01/2010 17H:00 Luanda
Winner 26 v Winner 27 28/01/2010 20H:30 Benguela

Third place match
Loser 29 v Loser 30 30/01/2010 17H:00 Benguela

Final
Winner 29 v Winner 30 31/01/2010 17H:00 Luanda

The African Cup of Nations draw has been finalized as follows:

Group A: Angola, Mali, Algeria, Malawi.

Group B: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso.

Group C: Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, Mozambique.

Group D: Cameroon, Tunisia, Zambia, Gabon.

The tournament is to be held from Jan 01 st to 31st , 2010.