Morocco survives semifinal shootout to clinch home AFCON final

Yassine Bounou to the rescue

Morocco's run at AFCON has been charmed, but it's largely relied on the individual brilliance of Real Madrid attacker Brahim Diaz. He scored in every single one of Morocco's previous AFCON matches and often served as the difference-maker in Morocco's final third.

Against Nigeria, though, Diaz was quiet. Some of his struggles came down to fitness—he played well over 90 minutes and looked exhausted by the end of it—but many came down to Nigeria's excellent man-marking play. Full back Bruno Onyemaechi all but eliminated Diaz from the game, and his stellar work kept Morocco from creating the scoring opportunities it did in earlier AFCON rounds.

Without Diaz as a creative outlet, Morocco did what it's done time and time again: relied on its famous defense. Full-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Achraf Hakimi kept Nigeria's wide players in check, but it was goalkeeper Yassine Bounou—the hero of Morocco's famous run at the 2022 World Cup—that really shone.

Bounou made two impressive saves in the final penalty shootout to tip the match in Morocco's favor. His first was a solid, but typical, diving block; his second, a borderline unbelievable one-handed save. Bounou never looked flustered or out of his element, not even when Nigeria really turned up the pressure. Morocco owes this AFCON final appearance to him.

Disappointment for Nigeria

Nigeria was stellar for long stretches of this semifinal, but this defeat—and the overall performance that led to it—can only be categorized as a massive disappointment.

Nigeria entered AFCON fresh off a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign that saw it miss out on the tournament altogether for the second straight cycle. Frustrated with its World Cup lot and desperate to prove it still belonged to Africa's upper echelon, Nigeria came into AFCON swinging. It was the tournament's top-scoring team with 14 goals to its name. Offensively speaking, no other nation could touch it.

In this semifinal, Nigeria's tournament-leading offense met Morocco's tournament-leading defense, and it was ultimately found lacking. Attackers Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and Akor Adams struggled to impose themselves on the match in any meaningful way. Nigeria wrapped this game with just two shots on the books. Famously defensive Morocco, meanwhile, managed a whopping 16.

A fitting final

Morocco and Senegal make for a strong final pairing: they've been AFCON's most consistent and least dramatic outfits since the tournament started in December. Both are one-time AFCON winners; both made the knockout rounds of the last World Cup; both are led by experienced, intelligent home-grown coaches who have more than earned this international spotlight.

Morocco will host Senegal in the AFCON final on Sunday, Jan. 18, in Rabat.