Senegal beat Morocco to win the Africa Cup of Nations in dramatic fashion on Sunday night, but victorious manager Pepe Thiaw has been branded ‘shameful’ by his opposite number after a wild final in Rabat.
There have been chaotic scenes late within the goalless game when Morocco were awarded a penalty in stoppage time by referee Jean Jacques Ndala.
With the tournament being played in Morocco, Senegal felt they were being unfairly treated, already frustrated that Ismaila Sarr saw a goal chalked off earlier in the competition.
So indignant was Thiaw that he dragged his team off the pitch, delaying the ultimate for around 17 minutes as fights broke out within the stands.
The protest eventually got here to an end, however the drama didn’t, as Morocco’s Brahim Diaz then took the penalty, tried a Panenka, and saw his effort comfortably held by Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
That saw the match go into extra-time, where Villarreal midfielder Pape Gueye scored a superb winner for Senegal, who held onto their 1-0 lead and won the tournament for a second time.
The drama wasn’t quite finished there, though, with Morocco coach Walid Regragui hitting out at Thiaw for his mid-match protest.
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‘The image we’ve given of Africa is shameful,’ Regragui told a post-match press conference.
‘A coach who asks his players to depart the sector… What Pape did doesn’t honour Africa. He wasn’t classy. But he’s a champion, so he can say whatever he wants.’
Thiaw admitted that he was unsuitable to tug his players off the sector, telling BeIN Sport: ‘I apologise for football. After reflection, I had them come back. Sometimes, you’ll be able to react in the warmth of the moment. We shouldn’t have done it but it surely’s done and now we present our apologies to football.’
Senegal captain and Liverpool legend Sadio Mane had tried to maintain his teammates on the pitch throughout the protest and admitted it was ‘really bad’ to walk off.
‘Football is something special, the world was watching, so now we have to offer an excellent image for football,’ he said.
‘I believe it could be crazy to not play this game because what, the referee gave a penalty and we exit of the sport? I believe that may be the worst thing especially in African football. I’d slightly lose than this type of thing occur to our football.
‘I believe it’s really bad. Football shouldn’t stop for 10 minutes but what can we do? We’ve got to simply accept what we did but the great thing is that we got here back and we played the sport and what happened happened.’
Having scored the one goal of the sport, Gueye said: ‘We had a sense of injustice. Just before the penalty we thought we should always have had a goal and the referee didn’t go to VAR.
‘Sadio [Mane] told us to return back on and we remobilised. Edouard [Mendy] then made the save, we stayed focused, got the goal and won the sport.’
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