Zambia pride of Africa

The memory of 18 players killed in an air crash almost 20 years ago carried Zambia's current generation to their extraordinary African Nations Cup triumph, the team said on Monday.

Coach Herve Renard (once manager of Cambridge United) called the 18 a "silent force", while victorious players explained the importance of honouring their dead compatriots, whose plane went down not far from the Libreville stadium where Zambia won the Nations Cup against the much-fancied Ivory Coast on Sunday on penalties.

"It was very emotional and the memory of the players who died here played a big part," said midfielder Isaac Chansa.

"Once they said the final would be held in Gabon, we said this is ours this time around. It was written somewhere, you can see that from the miss of (Didier) Drogba."

Drogba missed a penalty on the hour thus meaning the wait goes on for an Ivory Coast team replete with many Premier League and European stars, with the country losing the 2006 final to Egypt in the same way and last winning the title 20 years ago.

The game ended 0-0 AET, and after 14 penalty kicks were converted, Kolo Toure and Gervinho failed to find the target for the Elephants as Zambia's Rainford Kalaba also blazed over but Stoppila Sunzu found the top corner to complete an amazing 8-7 victory.