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A heroic performance from Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary handed the Pharaohs a record 5th MTN Africa Cup of Nations in Cairo on Friday night.

Al Ahly goalkeeper El Hadary, in front of his fervent home crowd, saved two penalties in the shoot out, from Cote D'Ivoire captain Didier Drogba and substitute Bakary Kone, as Egypt won 4-2 on spot kicks after a goalless 120 minutes, in which El Hadary also gave a faultless performance.

There was devastation for Drogba, who also missed a gift wrapped opportunity in normal time, after his penalty in a shoot-out had won the quarterfinal for Cameroon, and he had also scored the winner against Nigeria in the semifinal.

After Ahmed Hassan had netted the first penalty in the shoot-out, Drogba fired his low and hard, but El Hadary sprung to his right to make the save.

When Abdelhalim Ali blazed over for Egypt, there was a hush in the Cairo night air. But Bakary Kone's penalty was also saved by Hadary, this time low to his left, and Mohamed Aboutrika stepped up to fire home the winning penalty.

Even Egypt's disgraced striker Ahmed ‘Mido' Hossam was on the pitch to celebrate with his teammates, though he spent most of the night in the press tribune, not even allowed to sit on the bench by Egypt coach Hassan Shehata.

Indeed, the only credit for officiating on the night goes to the assistant referee, who correctly ruled out an Egyptian goal for offside shortly before the end., despite huge pressure from the home crowd.

This was a pulsating match at times, never a dull goalless draw, in which both teams should really have found the net.

After sparring with each other for the first half an hour or so, Egypt's Emad Motaeb had the first real opportunity of the game, but fired wide after Jean Jaques Tizie had flapped at a cross.

Mohamed El Saqqa then pulled off a brilliant tackle to prevent Drogba from haring through on goal, before Kolo Toure arrived at the far post from a corner, but skewed his shot wide.

Then Kanga Akale's shot was well saved by El Hadary, diving to his left. Aboutrika headed wide after a late run into the penalty area two minutes after half time, but Cote D'Ivoire began to get a stranglehold on the game, knocking the ball around well, while the Pharaohs kept giving it away.

On 77 minutes, Drogba missed a fantastic chance to win it for the Elephants.

Arouna Kone, who had another superb game, got to the byline and pulled the ball across the six yard box.

But Drogba, with the goal at his mercy, blazed over.