Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu struck the winning spotkick in sudden

death after substitute Maicon had spurned the chance to give Brazil

their fifth title by placing his penalty over the crossbar.

Ghana fought manfully after the controversial first-half

dismissal of Daniel Addo, taking the game to extra-time and then

riding their luck in the shootout after 120 goalless minutes.

Goalkeeper Daniel Aygei kept Ghana in the game earlier in

extra-time with a point-blank save from Maicon, who had been

teed-up 10 yards out by Alex Teixeira's cut-back.

Reported Manchester United target Douglas Costa twice went close

in the additional 30 minutes, while Aygei was also called into

action by Wellington Junior.

The game changed with the straight red card shown to Ghana

centre-back Addo, who was very harshly dismissed for a halfway-line

foul on livewire striker Teixeira in the 37th minute despite the

presence of a covering defender.

Ghana's numerical disadvantage handed their opponents the

initiative after an attritional first 45 minutes and Brazil

dominated the second half.

Striker Alan Kardec scored Brazil's winner in the 1-0 semi-final

victory over Costa Rica but he was in profligate form against

Sellas Tetteh's men.

He spurned four chances inside 12 second-half minutes, first

diverting a cross straight at Aygei before twice heading over and

also firing into the side netting after a burst down the left.

Tetteh punched the air at the end of extra-time, proud to have

kept the favourites at bay despite being a man down.

His joy turned to delirium when Agyemang-Badu slotted his

penalty into the bottom-right corner after Maicon had fluffed his

chance to give Brazil an unassailable 4-2 lead in the shootout.

Earlier, Hungary secured victory in their third-place play-off

match against Costa Rica after heroics from goalkeeper Peter

Kulacsi in another penalty shootout.

Marcos Urena's fine 81st-minute opener for Costa Rica was

cancelled out by an injury-time penalty from Vladimir Koman and in

the ensuing shootout Kulacsi saved three penalties and saw one

strike the crossbar to earn the Europeans a 2-0 spotkick victory.