In the 80th minute of the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final between Morocco and Nigeria, around 60,000 fans started jumping up and down inside the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium. They were singing, waving red flags and whistling whenever a Nigerian player touched the ball.
If you had no idea the sides were drawing 0-0, you would have assumed Morocco were cruising to victory.
The Moroccan supporters have placed a huge amount of pressure on their team to win this tournament. They are expecting a trophy parade through the streets of Rabat next Monday. Walid Regragui’s side took a huge step towards granting that wish after beating Nigeria on penalties.
The only time the fans slightly dropped their noise levels was towards the end of extra-time, when it became clear a penalty shootout was looming. Nobody groaned or became frustrated when Nigeria’s centre-back Calvin Bassey made another headed clearance, or goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali caught the ball from a corner. It just seemed to spur them on.
Hosting the competition has its advantages, but do not underestimate the scale of Morocco’s achievement. Lots of people will recall their run to the semi-finals of the last World Cup in Qatar. They became the first African side in history to reach that stage, but they have underperformed at AFCON for a long time. This semi-final win will be a huge psychological boost.
This was their first semi-final since 2004. Back then, current head coach Regragui was a 28-year-old right-back who started all of their games en route to the final, where they lost to Tunisia. Captain Achraf Hakimi had just turned five.
Despite the confidence, Morocco showed resilience to overcome their opponents. Veteran centre-back Roman Saiss and midfield conductor Azzedine Ounahi were unavailable to face Nigeria due to injury. Nigeria’s Bruno Onyemaechi limited the influence of Brahim Diaz, the tournament’s top goalscorer and undisputed star. Hamza Igamane missed his spotkick and gave Nigeria an opportunity to take a 2-1 lead during the shootout, which they wasted.
Morocco completely nullified Nigeria, who had scored 14 goals in five games. Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman struggled to make an impact. Alex Iwobi was forced to drop deep next to his Fulham team-mate Bassey, and they kept pinging hopeful long passes towards Akor Adams. Nigeria only had two shots and 11 touches in Morocco’s box. The focus is always on Morocco’s ridiculous attacking talent, but they have conceded just once throughout the tournament — Lassine Sinayoko’s penalty for Mali in the second group stage game. It is not going to be easy for Senegal to break them down.
Nigeria effectively limited Brahim Diaz on Wednesday (Issam Zerrok/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
Nigeria’s full-back Bright Osayi-Samuel called the officiating by Ghanaian Daniel Laryea “appalling” and said, “It’s really painful we have refs like that in big games.” There were a couple of decisions which unfairly went against them. There was no bad decision on the scale of the decision during Cameroon’s match against Morocco, when the hosts’ Adam Masina appeared to foul Bryan Mbeumo.
The celebrations spoke for the scale of the achievement. Regragui ran to celebrate with his players after Youssef En-Nesryi scored the winning penalty. Yassine Bounou and Brahim slid across the pitch on their chests. The entire squad and backroom stuff huddled together in the centre-circle before lapping up the crowd’s adulation. A group of local journalists started chanting “Allez Bono” when Morocco’s first-choice goalkeeper, who saved penalties from Samuel Chukwueze and Onyemaechi, conducted a post-match press conference.
The squad was surprisingly calm when they left the stadium, though. Bounou strolled out with his son while Bilal El Khannouss was accompanied by his younger brother. Saiss and Abde Ezzalzouli chatted to a few television reporters, barely breaking into a smile. Brahim quietly said “we are in the final” as he walked past the media, but there were no wild scenes compared to Nigeria, who danced with a speaker after beating Algeria in the quarter-finals. It just reinforced the idea that they were never stressed about losing and that the entire nation is utterly convinced, and have been since the opening game, that they are going to lift the AFCON trophy for the first time in 50 years.
Senegal will be a challenging opponent, but you could argue this might end up being their most difficult game of the tournament. Nigeria were a force in attack and did not concede once in the knockout stages. Bassey produced one of the best individual performances of the tournament and his career, to repel Brahim, Ayoub El Kaabi and Ismael Saibari. Senegal will be without their defensive talisman Kalidou Koulibaly and Habib Diarra in the final due to suspension. Nicolas Jackson is a decent striker, but he is nowhere near the level of Osimhen. Senegal will be a little bit fresher, though, after eliminating Egypt inside 90 minutes.
The biggest question for Nigeria after this disappointing result is why can’t this talented generation win crucial matches? In February 2024, they lost the AFCON final to the Ivory Coast despite taking a first-half lead through William Troost-Ekong’s header. Last year, they crashed out of the World Cup play-offs on penalties to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now they have been dumped out of this edition of AFCON by the host nation. Troost-Ekong told The Athletic in an interview in October that the squad had learned from playing in “hostile” conditions in Abidjan against Ivory Coast. The defender, who retired last month, turned out to be wrong.
Nigeria have failed again while Morocco are on the cusp of becoming heroes.