AFRICAN NATIONAL CUP/CAMEROON - 0 SENEGAL - 0 Cameroon won the African Nations Cup on penalties, at the end of a gruelling 120-minute contest in which they largely had the measure of a clearly exhausted Senegal. The Indomitable Lions thus become the first side to retain the Nations Cup since Ghana in 1965 and join Ghana and Egypt as four-time winners.
"It was a very difficult match, both because of the conditions and because we played against a very good Senegal side," said Arsenal's Lauren. "I am very sorry for Senegal, because penalties is a hard way to lose any game."
It was Senegal's captain, Aliou Cisse, who had the misfortune of missing the final kick, after Amdy Faye and El Hadj Diouf had failed for Senegal, and Tony Sylva had saved brilliantly from Cameroon's Pierre Wome and Rigobert Song.
Such an ending seemed improbable hours earlier, when, much as they had done in the semi-final, the Senegalese Lions started with a flourish. In only the second minute Lamine Diatta's long clearance was cleverly dinked back by Diouf, but Henry Camara's shot scalped the crossbar when it seemed easier to score.
With Patrick Mboma, who has been in talks with Sunderland over a £4 million move from Parma, missing for the second straight game with a thigh strain, Cameroon had difficulty holding the ball up in attack, and despite some neat build-up play they initially struggled to create scoring chances.
As if to knock Senegal out of any complacency, Mboma's replacement, Pius Ndiefi, spurned a platinum opportunity to open the scoring. When his striking partner, Samuel Eto'o, careered down the right and guided the ball into Ndiefi's path eight yards out, the Sedan attacker really should have hit the target.
The match settled down into a satisfying rhythm with chances at both ends, and Diouf almost scored for Senegal with an audacious, 25-yard volley. A minute before half-time Cameroon thought they had taken the lead, but Eto'o's header, from Geremi's prodigious throw, was ruled out for a minor foul on Sylva.
How much of Senegal's gradual fading was due to the exhausting, 120 minute semi-final the Lions had played on Thursday? When Lamine Diatta let Eto'o's pedestrian header loop over him in the 70th minute, tiredness seemed the only explanation for such an elementary mistake. Ndiefi raced on to that unexpected bonus, and drilled the ball past Tony Sylva, only to see his shot rebound to safety off the far post.
Penalties it was then, and an unsatisfactory conclusion to a tournament that never quite hit the heights. Not that such a judgment seemed to weigh on the Cameroonians, as they cavorted with a cup they will be able to hold onto for another two years at least.
Guardian Service
SENEGAL: Sylva; Coly, Diatta, Cisse, Daf; Makhtar Ndiaye (Moussa Ndiaye 46), Diop (Faye 91), Diao, Fadiga; Henry Camara (Souleymane Camara 105), Diouf.
CAMEROON: Alioum; Song, Kalla, Tchato; Geremi, Lauren, Foe, Olembe, Wome; Ndiefi (Suffo104), Eto'o.
Referee: G al Ghandour (Egypt)
(AET; Cameroon win 3-2 on penalties)
