Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was the hero with two saves in the shoot-out as hosts Morocco beat Nigeria 4-2 on penalties to set up an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final showdown this weekend with Senegal after a tense last-four clash on Wednesday finished 0-0 at the end of extra time.
Bounou saved from Samuel Chukwueze and brilliantly from Bruno Onyemaechi, allowing Youssef En-Nesyri to convert the winning kick and spark wild celebrations among the 65,458 crowd inside the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
There was joy but also relief for Hamza Igamane, who had appeared distraught after his kick, Morocco’s second in the shoot-out, was saved by Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.
He was the only Moroccan player to fail to score in the shoot-out; however, with captain and talisman Achraf Hakimi among those who converted their penalties.
Morocco will now play Senegal on Sunday for the title after the Lions of Teranga defeated Mohamed Salah’s Egypt 1-0 in the other semi-final earlier in Tangiers, thanks to a Sadio Mane goal, which will be a clash between the top two African sides in the FIFA world rankings.
“It was one of the hardest matches we have had against a very solid and talented team,” said Morocco coach Walid Regragui, who played in the last Atlas Lions side to reach the final when they lost to Tunisia in 2004.
“I am very happy for the players and for the Moroccan people who really deserve this.
“It is a great gift for them to be in the final, but we will need to recover quickly because we put a lot of energy into this game.”
Morocco have been under enormous pressure to deliver a first AFCON title for their country in half a century, but will be confident of coming out on top against Senegal with their support behind them.
However, as their dream remains alive, it is an agonising way for Nigeria’s hopes to end, two years after they lost the final to the hosts inthe Ivory Coast, they had been hoping to win a fourth Cup of Nations crown to match the tally of rivals Ghana.
Led by two recent winners of the African player of the year prize, Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman, Nigeria had been arguably the best team at the tournament up to the semi-finals and the top scorers with 14 goals.
But they created next to nothing during the 120 minutes here and must settle for Saturday’s third-place play-off against Egypt in Casablanca before watching the World Cup from afar following their failure to qualify.
“The players fought for every ball, and it is difficult to lose on penalties, but this is football, and we have to accept it,” said Nigeria coach Eric Chelle.
“It is difficult to play here in Morocco because you have to play against the team and against the crowd.”
Doubts about the Moroccan team’s ability to handle the enormous pressure of playing at home had dissipated following their win over Cameroon in the quarter-finals.
The 2022 World Cup semi-finalists had been whistled by their own fans at times during the group phase here, but this time those supporters did their bit by responding to any Nigerian spell of possession with deafening jeers.
A frenetic opening spell to the contest saw the Moroccan winger Brahim Diaz, probably the tournament’s outstanding player, curl a shot wide before Alex Iwobi teed up Lookman at the other end for a shot that was well saved.
Morocco had chances, including a free-kick from Hakimi and a shot from Ismael Saibari that was well saved by Nwabali.
However, the second half was more cagey, and the clock ran down on normal time, while the spectre of penalties grew larger as the extra half-hour progressed.
It seemed Nigeria were settling for the shoot-out, even taking off Osimhen as they hoped to repeat their win on penalties in the 2024 semi-final against South Africa.
However, Morocco had also famously won on penalties against Spain at the last World Cup, and they repeated the trick to reach the final of their Cup of Nations.
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