DR Congo shock Ghana to win African Nations Championship

Democratic Republic of Congo shocked Ghana 2-0 Sunday to win the maiden African Nations Championship final.

Dioko Kaluyituka put the ‘Leopards’ ahead one minute into the second half at Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in the Ivory Coast economic capital and Mbenza Bedi added a second 14 minutes from full-time.

It was the first triumph for DR Congo in an African Football Confederation (CAF) national team competition since they defeated Zambia 2-0 in a replay of the 1974 Nations Cup final in Cairo.

The result dashed Ghanaian hopes of a CAF national team title cleansweep having won the Nations Cup four times, the youth championship three times and the junior championship twice.

Top seeds and pre-tournamnent favourites Ghana entered the final as the team to beat having outclassed DR Congo 3-0 eight days ago in the mini-league phase of a competition for local-based footballers.

Kaluyituka scored for the third time in the tournament to finish runners-up behind five-goal Zambian Given Singuluma while it was the first strike by Bedi.