\u2060Yassine Bounou saved two penalties and Youssef En-Nesyri \u200bnetted the decisive spot kick as hosts Morocco secured \u200ba 4-2 shoot-out victory over Nigeria following \u200ctheir 0-0 draw in a tense Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in Rabat on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Morocco, seeking \u200btheir first continental title in 50 years, will face 2021 winners Senegal in Sunday\u2019s decider back in Rabat, while Nigeria take on Egypt in the third-place play-off a day before.<\/p>\n
The 120 minutes before the \u200cshoot-out had few clear-cut chances for either side, but it was Morocco who created the \u200dgreater opportunities, though they were \u200ddenied by some fine saves from Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.<\/p>\n
Nigeria had the best scoring record \u2060in the competition coming into the semi-final, but offered very little going forward in a limp display.<\/p>\n
And when Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi saw their tame penalties saved in the shootout, they were left to reflect on a performance that showed little ambition.<\/p>\n
Morocco were workmanlike and efficient as they have been all through the competition, even if they are still to find their best form.<\/p>\n
They are on the brink of a first continental crown<\/a> since 1976, but their biggest challenge awaits in an impressive Senegal side who beat Egypt 1-0<\/a> thanks to Sadio Mane\u2019s winner in the first semi-final in Tangier earlier on Wednesday.<\/p>\n “It will be an amazing final between the two best teams on the continent in the last year,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui said after the game.<\/p>\n “[Tonight] we played against a very good team, which had scored 14 goals before today. They had only two shots against us, and only one on target. It tells you something.” <\/p>\n Nigeria coach Eric Chelle said: “We struggled to play our game today. It was very difficult. I don’t want to say we were tired, but it was tough. We couldn’t keep possession and when we had the ball, we couldn’t find solutions.” <\/p>\n The first half hour in Rabat was devoid of goalmouth chances until Achraf Hakimi\u2019s corner was headed into the \u2060path of Ayoub El Kaabi five yards from goal.<\/p>\n But he \u200bwas caught in two minds whether \u200dto turn and shoot or try an overhead kick, and in the end did neither as the chance was lost.<\/p>\n Morocco’s Ismael \u200cSaibari showed excellent skill to work a shooting chance but Nwabali was equal to his effort. He \u2060was by far the busier keeper in the game, but Morocco were mostly reduced \u2060to long-range efforts that proved comfortable enough to save.<\/p>\n Nigeria had few opportunities and when talisman Victor Osimhen did receive a pass in the box, his touch was poor and the rare chance was lost. <\/p>\n Nayef Aguerd\u2019s header from a corner hit the outside of the post as the hosts went close, but penalties seemed inevitable well before the 120 minutes were up. And following Bounou\u2019s saves, En-Nesyri struck the decisive spot-kick to send his side into their first final since a 2004 loss to Tunisia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2060Yassine Bounou saved two penalties and Youssef En-Nesyri \u200bnetted the decisive spot kick as hosts Morocco secured \u200ba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[146,165,122,14859,1981,1980],"class_list":{"0":"post-24317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-africa-cup-of-nations","9":"tag-morocco","10":"tag-nigeria","11":"tag-sport-team","12":"tag-standard","13":"tag-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}