The unlikely hero of the evening was Boubacar Barry, Ivory Coast’s hitherto reserve goalkeeper, only promoted to the team after an injury side-lined first choice Sylvain Gbohouo. After saving two penalties, he slotted the winning kick against his opposite number, sending the West African nation into raptures.
It was a bizarre and beguiling night of football in Equatorial Guinea, but the festivities were not contained to the Estadio de Bata. Millions around the world, including players past and present, took to social media to share their despair and jubilation.
Here, we have compiled the juiciest online outbursts as we reflect on this, the morning after the night before.
The importance of the occasion could not be understated.
AFCON > everything else.
But an utterly uncompelling 120 minutes of football gifted few highlights. Fans were impatient.
Many tombstones will be written "He watched #AFCONFinal2015". What a snooze fest!
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A photo posted by Salomon Kalou (@salomonkalou) on Feb 8, 2015 at 8:06pm PST
And fans felt the same.
Happy for Yaya…Finally got his hands on that Afcon trophy…
But after 23 years of hurt, the journey was complete.
We did it! pic.twitter.com/Zt1KR609I8
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