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AFCON FINALS 2025: WHAT DID SADIO MANE SAY TO CONVINCE SENEGAL PLAYERS TO RETURN TO PLAY?
Senegal are African champions! Relive the 17-minute walk-off, the Brahim Diaz panenka miss, and Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner.
The Africa Cup of Nations final between Senegal and Morocco turned wild in Rabat after a controversial penalty decision. Senegal had just been denied a goal, and then, only minutes later, Morocco got a penalty in the 108th minute that looked set to seal the win right at the end.
Senegal’s manager, Pape Thiaw, couldn’t believe what was happening. Furious, he called his players off the pitch and led them back to the dressing room. For 13 minutes, the match hung in the balance. Sadio Mane, formerly of Liverpool, argued with tournament officials while fans and players waited to see if the game would even continue. Eventually, Senegal’s players returned, but the chaos wasn’t over yet. Brahim Diaz, this year’s top scorer, stepped up for the penalty, tried a cheeky panenka, and Edouard Mendy stopped it cold.
No one had scored as stoppage time began, but then Senegal thought they’d finally broken through, scrambling the ball over the line. The celebration didn’t last. The referee pulled the play back, saying Abdoulaye Seck had fouled his man before heading the ball off the post.
Then, deep into added time, West Ham’s El Hadju Malick Diouf tangled with Diaz in the box. The ref pointed to the spot, and the stadium erupted. Senegal’s players stormed off, the Moroccan team looked confused, and the atmosphere got tense. From the stands, you could feel the anger building. Some Senegal fans even attempted to invade the pitch in protest.
After all that, Mane played the diplomat, calming things down and leading his team back out. The final act before extra time? Diaz, who’s played for Real Madrid and Manchester City, tried to chip the penalty past Mendy. It backfired spectacularly. Mendy caught it, Thiaw could only shake his head and smile, and that was it — the whistle blew for full-time. Extra time was on.
Watching it all, former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel didn’t hold back. “It’s a shameful end,” he said. “That decision was totally wrong. The first goal should have stood; there was no foul, and then to give a penalty like that is disgraceful. I get why the Senegal players are so frustrated, but walking off is hard to see. Whatever happens now, I don’t even know who the real winner is.”
But extra time still had a twist. Just seven minutes in, Pape Gueye stunned the home crowd with a brilliant goal for Senegal. The whole stadium fell silent.
SENEGAL WINS SECOND AFCON TITLE AFTER WILD "PANENKA" DISASTER IN RABAT DRAMA
Senegal are African champions! Relive the 14-minute walk-off, the Diaz panenka miss, and Pape Gueye’s extra-time heroics.
Pape Gueye fired Senegal to a wild 1-0 win over Morocco after extra time, capping off an Africa Cup of Nations final packed with chaos and drama.
The night turned on its head late in regulation. With the match still goalless, Morocco’s Brahim Diaz won a penalty after VAR spotted Senegal’s El Hadji Malick Diouf dragging him down in the box. Senegal’s players lost it. Their coach, Pape Bouna Thiaw, called them off the field. Sadio Mane, the team’s heartbeat, eventually talked everyone into coming back. The stadium buzzed with confusion and tension as officials and players crowded around the touchline monitor.
When play finally resumed—after a 14-minute wait—Diaz stepped up to take the penalty but tried a cheeky chip. It was a disaster. The ball floated harmlessly into Senegal keeper Edouard Mendy’s hands. The Moroccan fans groaned. Momentum swung.
Senegal actually thought they’d scored earlier, only to see a goal ruled out for a foul. That just fuelled their anger. But after surviving the penalty scare, they looked like a team on a mission.
Four minutes into extra time, Mane won the ball in midfield and slipped it to Idrissa Gana Gueye, who set up Pape Gueye. He shrugged off Moroccan captain Achraf Hakimi and lashed a shot into the top corner. The stadium, packed with 66,000 mostly Moroccan fans, fell silent.
Morocco desperately pushed for an equaliser. Nayef Aguerd smacked a header off the bar in extra time, but the ball wouldn’t go in. Diaz, distraught after his miss, got subbed out. The hosts’ hopes of ending a 50-year wait for a second AFCON title vanished.
Senegal nearly made it 2-0, but Cherif Ndiaye missed a golden chance late on. It didn’t matter. The final whistle sparked celebrations for Senegal, who claimed their second Cup of Nations title in three years. Their first came only in 2022, a dramatic penalty shootout win over Egypt.
Now, Senegal can look forward to the World Cup in the United States this June. The big question? Whether Mane—who hinted this might be his last AFCON—sticks around for another run.
Of course, there’ll be questions about how Senegal’s players and fans handled the penalty drama, and maybe about the Moroccan organisers, too. The final itself was tense and cagey, with not much to shout about in front of goal. Senegal’s Iliman Ndiaye forced a save from Yassine Bounou in the first half, and Morocco’s Ayoub El Kaabi missed a sitter after the break.
But in the end, Senegal survived the madness and found a hero in Gueye. For Morocco, it was heartbreak—many fans had already slipped away into the wet Rabat night before the final whistle.
THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW SADIO MANE SAVED THE AFCON FINAL FROM COLLAPSE
Sadio Mane saved the match before winning the trophy. Relive the chaos, the walk-off, and the dramatic extra-time win in Rabat.
The AFCON final in Rabat between Senegal and Morocco took a wild turn in injury time. With the score still stuck at 0-0, Senegal thought they’d finally broken through—a late header, in the back of the net. Then the ref called it back. Abdoulaye Seck got flagged for a foul on Achraf Hakimi, who went down like he’d been hit by a bus.
Things only got messier from there. Moments later, Brahim Diaz went flying in the box after the slightest pull from El Hadji Malick Diouf during a corner. The ref pointed to the spot. The Senegalese players weren’t having it. Most of the team stormed off the pitch, straight into the tunnel, while everyone tried to figure out what was happening. Sadio Mané hung back, talking to the officials and some of the Moroccan players, trying to calm things down. Eventually, Senegal’s coach, Pape Thiaw, convinced his players to come back out.
Thiaw actually started the walkout after the referee checked the VAR monitor for Diouf’s penalty. At first, Mane looked ready to join his teammates, but then he stopped. He started waving them back, almost like he was directing traffic, and, eventually, they listened. With 126 caps for Senegal, people respect Mané. The match finally restarted.
Diaz tried to get cheeky with his penalty, going for a Panenka in the 24th minute of injury time. Edouard Mendy read it perfectly and made the save.
Then, just four minutes into extra time, Senegal turned the whole thing on its head. Pape Gueye fired a shot from outside the box, and it slipped past Moroccan keeper Yacine Bono. Finally, someone scored.
Mane, now 33, has earned a reputation as a true leader, not just for his play but for everything he’s done off the pitch. He’s helped build schools, handed out laptops, and even given money to the government when they needed it.
He told the BBC before the game, “I never wanted to be recognised after my career as a great football player. I just want to be recognised as a great, great human. For me, this is the more important honour.”
Back in 2022, Mane led Senegal to their first-ever AFCON title, beating his Liverpool teammate Mo Salah in the final. This latest tournament is his sixth (2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025). He played three times as a Liverpool player, missing club matches so he could represent his country.
With 10 career AFCON goals, Mane sits tied for ninth all-time in the tournament’s history.
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