The Morocco head coach, Walid Regragui, accused Senegal’s Pape Thiaw of having brought shame on African football after Morocco failed to win the Africa Cup of Nations in what he termed “a final with a Hitchcockian script”. After Senegal had had a goal ruled out in stoppage time, his side were awarded a penalty by the video assistant referee, prompting Senegal’s players to walk off the pitch in protest. When they returned, Brahim Díaz missed the penalty with a duffed Panenka, and Senegal went on to win in extra time.
“The image we’ve given of Africa is shameful. A coach who asks his players to leave the field … What Pape did does not honour Africa,” Regragui said. “He had already started in the [pre-match] press conference. He wasn’t classy. But he is a champion, so he can say whatever he wants. We stopped the match in the eyes of the world for 10 minutes. That didn’t help Brahim. That doesn’t excuse Brahim for the way he hit the penalty. He hit it like that and we have to accept it. We were one minute from being African champions. That’s football. It’s often cruel. We missed what for some was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Pape Gueye, who scored the winner, spoke of his “pride” in victory. “What we felt was injustice. There had been a foul for us and the referee chose not to look at the VAR,” he said, trying to explain the walk-off. “We were frustrated, but Sadio [Mané] told us to come back on the pitch to remobilise us. We all saw what happened at the end. We took the decision to come back on the pitch to give everything – which we did.”
Regragui has come in for significant criticism, with numerous journalists in the post-match press conference calling in him to resign, despite a 26-game unbeaten run since leading Morocco to the World Cup semi-finals. “To win the Africa Cup is not easy,” he said. “We were very close and so everybody is disappointed but in football, you need to come back strong, you need to accept what has happened, you need to be humble and you need to work to do it, inshallah.”
Thiaw entered the press conference room to a mix of cheers and boos, which was followed by a mass walkout by the Moroccan press. The press conference was held up for several minutes by arguments between Senegalese and Moroccan journalists. Thiaw himself then left as the confrontations continued, spilling on to the stage. As one CAF official announced that the conference was over, another sadly took away the miniature aeroplane representing one of the sponsors. It was a suitably chaotic end to a chaotic night.
