Brahim Diaz suffers panenka meltdown as Senegal win wild, controversial AFCON final | OneFootball

Senegal are champions of Africa for the second time after an astonishing AFCON final that will go down in infamy among the most controversial major finals ever played, with Morocco missing a penalty that would have won the game in the 24th minute of injury time.

The hosts appeared set for victory after being controversially awarded what might euphemistically be termed a ‘soft’ penalty deep into injury time after a goalless 90 minutes. And we say goalless, but Senegal had plenty of reason to feel aggrieved about a disallowed goal earlier in the game.

With a sense of burning injustice, Senegal’s players responded to the decision from VAR to award Morocco’s last-gasp penalty by leaving the field for several minutes before finally being convinced to return.

By the time Braham Diaz took the penalty with his head somewhere orbiting Mars, the match was nominally in the 24th minute of added time. Twice Edouard Mendy approached the penalty spot to further delay the kick as tension in Rabat mounted.

And when the moment finally came, Brahim Diaz faltered. Horribly. His attempted panenka looped pitifully, in slow motion, into Mendy’s grateful arms.

The final whistle soon followed, sending the game into extra-time. A still shellshocked Morocco were picked off by a superb Senegal move in the early minutes of the extra 30, with Sadio Mane and Idrissa Gueye combining to send Pape Gueye away.

His shot from the edge of the box flew in off the crossbar to spark more wild scenes inside the stadium.

Both teams had chances as the game became more and more stretched as rain poured down, with Nayef Aguerd heading against the bar the closest Morocco came to forcing penalties.

It would be hard to begrudge Senegal their success. They were the better side and the decisions that went against them hard to justify.

But we surely haven’t heard the last of a situation in which a team unilaterally leaving the field and delaying the game for as long as they did were then able to return and claim victory, however deserved.