The Ivory Coast has now made their third and final substitution, and it's a bit of a shock - Yaya Toure has come off for Wilifried Bony. The Manchester City star hadn't done that much in the match apart from missing the best chance of the first half, but you'd still have expected him to be crucial to the Elephant's attempts to break down a stubborn Zambia defence.
Zambia vs. Ivory Coast, 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Final: Gradel Comes Close
Speaking of breaking down the Zambia defence, the Ivory Coast have nearly managed just that and are really unlucky not to have gone in front through Max Gradel. The winger received the ball in the penalty area, earned himself two yards of space with a brilliant feint, and then slid a left-footed shot a few inches wide of Kennedy Mweeme’s left-hand post, with the goalkeeper nowhere to be found. That was astonishingly close to the opening goal.
We’re now into stoppage time - we’ll have four minutes of it until we go to half an hour of extra time. We’re still at 0-0.
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