Zambia have lifted their first ever African Cup of Nations after a penalty shootout win over Ivory Coast in the final played in Libreville, the capital of Gabon.

­The more experienced Ivorian players created more chances in normal time, with Didier Drogba coming closest to scoring. However, the Chelsea attacker put his penalty over the bar of Zambian keeper Kennedy Mweene’s goals just after the hour mark.

It was Zambia who created the best chance in extra time, with Felix Katongo rocking the Ivory Coast’s post. But after two hours of football, the game finished 0-0.

The match went to penalties, in which luck favored the team no one had really expected to make it as far as the final.

Gervinho was responsible for the vital miss for Ivory Coast, and Zambia’s Stophira Sunzu became a national hero by wrapping up an 8-7 Zambian win on penalties.

The best player of the Russian Premier League in 2011, Seydou Doumbia of CSKA Moscow, has spent the whole final on the Ivorian bench.  

So Herve Renard’s charges have won the African champions’ title for the first time in their history. The Zambian striker, Christopher Katongo, was also named the best player of the whole competition

Symbolically, the win comes in the same city where 18 Zambian internationals died in a 1993 plane crash, which is the country's worst sporting disaster.

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