Africa Cup of Nations Day 15: Ivory Coast advance to finals

One half of the Africa Cup of Nations final is set.

The Ivory Coast prevailed in their semi-final match with the Democratic Republic of Congo and advanced to the country's first final at the tournament since 2012 after registering a 3-1 victory on Wednesday.

The Ivorians have to wait to see who they'll be playing as they try to capture the country's second continental championship as the other semi-final takes place on Thursday.

Their opponents will be either hosts Equatorial Guinea or Ghana, whom the Ivory Coast beat in the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations final.

Here's how the action unfolded in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday:

DR Congo 1, Ivory Coast 3

Yaya Toure opened the scoring with a contender for goal of the tournament.

The Manchester City midfielder launched a thunderous shot from the edge of the box , a play made possible thanks to the unintentional assist from his new teammate at City, Wilfried Bony.

The forward looked like he favoured having a shot at goal himself, but a defender's challenge thwarted his efforts. The ball, however, rolled across the top of the box and into the path of a surging Toure who almost put his foot right through it.

Seconds later, the match was level once again when Dieumerci Mbokani calmly converted a penalty.

But a lapse in judgment haunted Congo five minutes before halftime when Yannick Bolasie's atrocious giveaway led to the Ivory Coast's second goal of the match.

As Congo attempted to move the ball out of thei end, Bolasie's lazy attempt at a back-pass was easily intercepted and led to a three-on-two advantage for the Ivory Coast.

Bony registered his second assist of the match when he laid the ball over to Gervingo for the curling finish.

While the error was a costly one for Bolasie and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the midfielder almost made up for it when he produced a dazzling bit of footwork before his effort was saved by the 'keeper's outstretched foot.

In the end, the Ivory Coast proved too much for Congo to overcome and victory was virtually sealed with over 20 minutes remaining.

Wilfried Kanon ended Congo's dreams of reaching the final when he gathered a rebound off an Ivory Coast corner-kick and quickly volleyed the ball into the net for the final goal of the match.