How Senegal beat Morocco in extraordinary AFCON 2025 final despite walking off mid game – The New York Times

International Football
AFCON
Final Drama
Senegal are Africa Cup of Nations champions after a 1-0 win against Morocco in a chaotic final in Rabat.
Pape Gueye scored the only goal of the game with a thumping strike into the top corner in extra time.
There were unprecedented scenes in second-half stoppage time as Brahim Diaz had a controversial penalty saved, awarded on VAR review after he was judged to have been fouled by El Hadji Malick Diouf.
Senegal players left the field in protest at that decision after a premature decision a few minutes prior ensured VAR could not intervene when Ismaila Sarr thought he had given his side the lead.
Fans broke through hoardings in the stands in the wake of the penalty decision in the ninth minute of added time.
GO FURTHER
Senegal win chaotic AFCON final after walking off field in penalty protest
The gold ticker tape sits quietly on an abandoned pitch at the Moulay Abdellah.
The chaos of the previous is hours is behind us, but the reaction and recriminations will surely last long into the future.
After the drama of tonight, it feels almost cruel that we have to wait until June for more major-tournament football.
The major-tournament football I'm talking about is, of course, the 2026 World Cup hosted in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Morocco and Senegal will both be there and will harbour ambitions of going deep in the knockouts.
There is a chance they could meet in the Round of 32 and I, for one, would be very keen to see a rematch given the chaos of this evening's game.

A Beautiful moment for Senegal's players as iconic singer-songwriter Akon, of Senegalese descent, joins the celebrations.
Chaos in Pape Thiaw's post-match press conference. He walked in holding a young girl's hand, was booed by Moroccan reporters and applauded by Senegal journalists.
They started arguing and he walked out, leading to the press officer saying there will be no more press conferences.
It's a shame we didn't get to hear from Pape Thiaw.
I can't remember seeing anyone pull a move on a football pitch like Pape Thiaw ushering his players off the field tonight after Morocco were awarded a penalty.
It didn't cover him, or his players, in glory but I can totally understand his frustration and the feeling of injustice after the pair of decisions in stoppage time.
He will face more criticism over the next 48 hours but, when all is said and done, Thiaw is an AFCON-winning manager — something he will have dreamed about coming into this year's tournament.
Pape Gueye made himself a hero this evening, with one of the greatest goals scored in an AFCON final. He was asked about the controversy that followed Morocco being awarded a penalty — here is his answer, courtesy of Jay Harris.
💬 “We saw what happened at the end of the game but we decided to come back to the pitch and give our all. We were able to score and win the game. We had felt some injustice because before that there was a fault for us but the referee did not see it.
“As humans, we felt frustrated. As you mentioned, Sadio told us to come back and we found the strength to come back, then Mendy saved the penalty.”
The pressure could not have been much higher on Walid Regragui coming into this evening's AFCON final.
Despite the success he has enjoyed as Morocco manager, this was considered a must-win game for a large proportion of the supporters.
Had Brahim opted for a more orthodox penalty technique, he would likely be an AFCON-winning coach right now. Instead, he has blown the chance of winning the big prize on home soil.
A big decision awaits him and his bosses over the next few days…
A Moroccan journalist asked Walid Regragui if he will resign tonight or tomorrow.
The Morocco manager looked furious and asked multiple times what organisation they worked for.
Another journalist then called for Regragui to resign, before saying that children were crying in the stands because of Regragui.
While Brahim has been criticised far and wide for his ludicrous decision to opt for the Panenka, Edouard Mendy's role in keeping it out is easy to forget.
It takes enormous mental strength to pre-empt something like that and opt against diving to your left or right when a penalty is about to strike a penalty.
Mendy, who saved a similar penalty from Sergio Aguero in May 2021, made his decision and stuck to it in superbly in one of the biggest moments of his career.
You need your most experienced to stand out in games like this and Mendy did exactly that.
Was Brahim Diaz trying to mimic Hakimi? Don't forget the right-back scored a Panenka penalty in the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup. It was the winning kick in a shootout as Morocco beat Spain.
If it comes off you look nerveless. If it doesn't, well… Pele once said that to take one in that style you have to be a ‘genius or a madman’.
An excellent point from Nancy, that. And a discussion that needs to be happening more in the upper echelons of the game.
Notwithstanding any potential concussion implications, Neil El Aynaoui had blood quite literally pouring down his face and should not have continued the match.
Credit to him for a Herculean effort to last 120 minutes but, once the torrential rain set in, his face was covered with blood again.
Football has taken steps to improve its response to head injuries in the last decade, but more work must be done.
Aside from the in-game drama at the end of the match, it was really concerning to see Neil El Aynaoui suffer a serious-looking head injury and stay on the field.
It took more than eight minutes for him to get the treatment he needed after a clash of heads left him with blood pouring down his face.
That should have been the end of his night, no discussion, in his best interests.
Sometimes, it comes down to not blinking under the pressure.
Brahim Diaz did — Pape Gueye did not.
Fine margins.
There is plenty to unpick when it comes to the drama of this final — which more than lived up to its billing even with some unsavoury scenes.
But Morocco have been excellent tournament hosts and will understandably be devastated by this defeat.
It feels like the dust is finally settling on a match that started almost four hours ago.
For 90 minutes, it was an enjoyable game of football that went off without major drama and lacked quality in front of goal. Then we saw drama unlike any game I can remember.
A really poor refereeing decision given so prematurely that it stopped VAR intervening and then a decision, made with VAR intervention, that was equally dismal.
Players left the pitch in protest and, when they returned, one of the worst penalties ever taken was saved by Edouard Mendy. And, in extra time, Pape Gueye decided the destination of the trophy with a sensational strike.
Unrivalled drama, but also a night that didn't paint African football in a strong light.
The Everton man had a good game today — this one might take a while to sink in.
It felt, after those ugly scenes following the penalty decision, that it would be an injustice to the quality of the match up to that point if it was not decided on footballing merit.
The decision to disallow Sarr’s goal for Senegal was soft. The VAR call to give Morocco a penalty bordered on outrageous.
Justice was done to keep the game at 0-0 when Brahim missed. And Senegal won with a very good goal indeed.
Quite an interesting award, this.
None of the Morocco players wanted to be anywhere near collecting trophies having missed out on the main one.
But given Brahim’s theatrics to win that controversial penalty in the game, it sort of feels like fair play was absent today.
Unless of course he missed the penalty on purpose to right the wrong. In which case, fair play (pardon the pun).
You have to say this is well deserved.
Both for clean sheets and some remarkable saves to keep Morocco in many games over the course of the tournament, Yassine Bounou has been a star.
A disappointment for him to be on the wrong end of the result today.

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