“The match we had was shameful for Africa” : Morocco coach slams Senegal team for walking off the field
Morocco coach Walid Regragui has slammed the Senegal team for walking off the field in what was a bizarre end to the 2025-26 AFCON. Morocco and Senegal were heading into extra-time in the finals, when deep into stoppage time, the hosts were given a penalty after VAR deemed that El Hadji Malick Diouf had fouled Díaz in the box.
The Senegalese team contested that the penalty was wrongly given, as the coach and players walked off the field. The game saw a pause of almost 15 minutes, before the Senegal players returned to the field. However, Brahim Diaz missed the penalty, as his failed panenka attempt went straight to Mendy’s hands.
It went from bad to worse for the hosts with Papa Gueye scoring in the extra-time to help Senegal win the AFCON, their second title in the last three editions. Morocco head coach believes that the long pause could have derailed Brahim Diaz. He also slammed the Senegal national team, stating that the match was shameful for the continent as a whole.
“He had a lot of time before taking the penalty which must have disturbed him,” Regragui said. But we can’t change what happened. That is how he chose to take the penalty. We need to look forwards now.”
“The match we had was shameful for Africa,” he added. “When a head coach asks his players to leave the pitch, when he’s saying things that already started in the press conference [before the match, when Senegal accused Morocco of unsporting tactics] … he needs to stay class, in victory as well as in defeat.”
“What Pape [Thiaw] did tonight doesn’t honor Africa. He’s an African champion now, so he can say what he wants, but they stopped the match for over 10 minutes. That doesn’t excuse Brahim for the way he hit [the penalty], he hit it like that and we have to own it. We need to look forward now, and accept that Brahim missed it.”
Morocco had several chances in the match, where they could have gone onto win the match. They also had a couple of chances in the extra-time to draw level, and force the match into penalties. For the second successive game, Morocco failed to score in the match, as they defeated Nigeria only on penalties to advance into the finals.
