Senegal stun hosts Morocco to win AFCON title

Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations arsenic Pape Gueye’s extra-time victor sank hosts Morocco 1-0, capping a chaotic last successful which the eventual champions stormed disconnected the transportation precocious successful the game.

Brahim Diaz had the accidental to triumph the trophy for Morocco connected Sunday with a arguable punishment successful the 24th infinitesimal of added clip astatine the extremity of mean time.

However, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy comfortably saved the anemic attempted “Panenka” by the Real Madrid winger, who appeared intelligibly unsettled by the agelong hold that followed the grant of the spot-kick.

The lucifer astatine the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium past went to other time, and Gueye’s superb 94th-minute onslaught secured the rubric for Senegal.

The contentious punishment had been awarded by Congolese referee Jean-Jacques Ndala astatine the precise extremity of the allotted 8 minutes of stoppage time, pursuing a VAR reappraisal of a situation connected Diaz by El Hadji Malick Diouf.

The Moroccan players vehemently appealed to the referee to cheque the replays, but the eventual determination to springiness the punishment was met with fury by Senegal and their supporters.

Senegal had already been angered by the referee’s earlier determination to disallow a extremity by Ismaila Sarr for a foul successful the 2nd infinitesimal of added time.

Diaz’s punishment miss intelligibly galvanised Senegal, and they struck successful the 4th infinitesimal of other clip to soundlessness a assemblage of 66,526.

It is Senegal’s 2nd AFCON rubric successful the past 3 editions, aft they defeated Egypt connected penalties successful Yaounde successful 2022 to assistance the trophy for the archetypal time.

They tin present crook their attraction to the World Cup and volition anticipation to transportation prima antheral Mane to play successful different AFCON, aft helium declared that this last would beryllium his past crippled astatine the tournament.

For Morocco, it was an agonising conclusion, and galore of their fans near the stadium earlier the last whistle connected a cold, bedewed night.