The final of the Africa Cup that faced Senegal and Morocco this Sunday will go down in history due to the madness experienced in … the final stretch of regulation time. From a goal disallowed against Senegal due to a previous foul by Seck on Achraf Hakimi, it went to a penalty in favor of Morocco for a knockdown on Brahim, ordered at the request of the VAR in the eighth minute of stoppage time, which exhausted the patience of the Senegalese team.
The Leones de la Teranga threatened to abandon the match and even left the playing field, but their captain, Sadio Mané, demanded that they return to the grass, honoring the ‘fair play’ and confronting their own coach, so the duel continued.
Sixteen minutes marked by confusion passed until the ball was put back into play. It was then, in the twenty-fourth minute of extra time, when Brahim grabbed the ball and headed for the penalty spot. Everything seemed set for the Real Madrid footballer, who exaggerated the contact, to become the hosts’ hero and give Morocco the second Africa Cup in its history 50 years later, but his Panenka-style shot ended up in the hands of Senegalese goalkeeper Benjamin Mendy. Incredible.
The match was doomed to extra time, in which Pape Gueye put Senegal ahead in the 95th minute, thereby adding more spice to a fight that will go around the world and go down in history due to a threat from Senegal in response to the disputed referee’s performance that is unprecedented in an event of this substance.
Nerves took hold of the 22 protagonists as the rain intensified in the final played at the Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, generating a series of surreal episodes in a tachycardic overtime. Morocco suffered, still regretting the mistake of the man who had emerged as the best player of the tournament, but also Senegal, who missed a great chance to seal the title in the second half of extra time when Cherif Ndiaye sent the ball wide with a shot into an empty goal.
Mané, hero; Brahim, villain
Senegal will not have to regret that ruling, which ended up prevailing and made good a bizarre turn of events. If it had not been for Mané, Senegal would have been left without the Africa Cup and with tremendous displeasure with the refereeing body since if he had carried out his threat to abandon the lawsuit, he would have been considered lost the match 0-3. However, thanks to the Al Nassr footballer, Los Leones de la Teranga are continental champions for the second time in their history.
The great defensive approach carried out by the Senegalese coach, Pape Thiaw, short-circuited Morocco, his team showed more character than the favorite and also knew how to overcome a series of referee errors to end up lifting the title. Poetic justice some will say. Cruel outcome, they will think of Morocco. And all this thanks to Mané, hero of a tremendous pulse that left Brahim as a villain for the hosts.
