\n<\/p>\n
Senegal beat Morocco to win the Africa Cup of Nations for a second time – but only after the final was overshadowed when they temporarily refused to play after the hosts were awarded a controversial stoppage-time penalty with the match goalless.<\/b><\/p>\n
Villarreal midfielder Pape Gueye scored the only goal in the fourth minute of extra time to seal a second triumph in five years for the Lions.<\/p>\n
But the game was marred by late controversy as Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw tried to usher his team off the field when Morocco were awarded a spot-kick in the 98th minute as a result of defender El Hadji Malick Diouf bringing down Brahim Diaz.<\/p>\n
Though when the penalty was eventually taken in the 114th minute, Real Madrid forward Diaz saw his Panenka attempt saved by Edouard Mendy.<\/p>\n
In his post-match press conference, Morocco coach Walid Regragui said Senegal’s actions were “shameful” and do not “honour Africa”.<\/p>\n
Thiaw, meanwhile, saw his media briefing cancelled after a ruckus broke out in the press room. <\/p>\n
But in an interview with BeIN Sport, he accepted that he should not have ordered his team off the field. <\/p>\n
“We didn’t agree,” he said. “I don’t want to go over all the incidents. I apologise for the football. <\/p>\n
“After reflecting on it I made them come back [on the pitch] – you can react in the heat of the moment. We accept the errors of the referee. <\/p>\n
“We shouldn’t have done it but it’s done and now we present our apologies to football.”<\/p>\n
Thiaw, 44, was furious with referee Jean Jacques Ndala – who awarded the penalty after reviewing the incident on the VAR monitor – for ruling out a goal for his side moments earlier.<\/p>\n
Crystal Palace forward Ismaila Sarr had bundled home from close range, but his effort was chalked off for a foul by Abdoulaye Seck on Achraf Hakimi.<\/p>\n
As several of the Senegal players followed Thiaw’s request to leave the field, a section of their supporters threw objects and attempted to get on the field.<\/p>\n
Senegal only returned from the dressing room at the request of former Liverpool forward Sadio Mane.<\/p>\n
Gueye then scored the only goal of the game with a stunning individual effort in the 94th minute.<\/p>\n
Diaz, substituted in the extra time, was left crestfallen as Morocco missed the chance to win a first Afcon title since 1976.<\/p>\n
After the game, Mendy insisted he was “proud” of the way Senegal – instructed by Mane – returned to the field to win their second Afcon title this decade. <\/p>\n
“What did we say to each other? That’s between us,” said Mendy.<\/p>\n
“We did it together and we came back together, that’s all that matters. We can be proud tonight.”<\/p>\n
Match-winner Gueye added: “We had a feeling of injustice. Just before the penalty we thought we should have had a goal and the referee didn’t go to VAR.<\/p>\n
“Sadio [Mane] told us to come back on and we remobilised. Edouard [Mendy] then made the save, we stayed focused, got the goal and won the game.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Senegal beat Morocco to win the Africa Cup of Nations for a second time – but only after the final was overshadowed when they temporarily refused to play after the hosts were awarded a controversial stoppage-time penalty with the match goalless. Villarreal midfielder Pape Gueye scored the only goal in the fourth minute of extra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}