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THE SECRET CONVERSATION BETWEEN EDOUARD MENDY AND BRAHIM DIAZ BEFORE THE PENALTY MISS
A 17-minute walk-off and a failed Panenka: Discover the inside story of how Morocco lost the AFCON 2026 final to Senegal.
Morocco manager Walid Regragui said Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz looked unsettled before his shocking penalty miss in the Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal.
Diaz had a golden shot at making history when Morocco won a last-minute penalty with the score still 0-0. One goal would have handed them their first continental title in half a century. But right when the pressure was at its peak, chaos broke out. Senegal’s coach, Pape Thiaw, pulled his whole team off the pitch to protest the VAR decision that led to the penalty. Suddenly, nobody knew what was going on. The Senegal players disappeared into the dressing room, fans tried to storm the field, and security scrambled to keep order. Seventeen minutes ticked by—seventeen long, tense minutes.
When the dust settled and everyone finally returned, Senegal’s keeper Edouard Mendy dragged things out even more, stalling at the penalty spot while Sadio Mane tried to calm everyone down. Diaz tried to block it all out. He kissed the ball, set it down, and went for a Panenka. But the shot was weak, and Mendy barely had to move. He caught it with ease.
The final turned into a wild, messy affair. In extra time, Senegal’s Pape Gueye broke through with a brilliant winner, and just like that, Senegal had their second AFCON title. Morocco’s players were crushed. Diaz, in tears, watched as Senegal lifted the trophy.
People on social media started whispering that Diaz missed the penalty on purpose, maybe as a protest against himself. But Regragui dismissed all of that. “He had too much time to think before the kick, and that messed with his head,” he said. “But what’s done is done. That’s how he took the penalty. Now we move forward.”
When reporters pressed Mendy about his conversation with Diaz before the miss, he just smiled. “That’s between us,” he said. “We went through it together, we came back together, and tonight, we can be proud.” Did he think Diaz missed on purpose? “No way. Let’s be serious. You really think, with one minute left and a country waiting fifty years for a title, anyone would throw that away? He wanted to score, and I did my job stopping him. That’s it.”
Diaz finished as the tournament’s top scorer, but after the loss, he was left posing for photos with player of the tournament Sadio Mane and top goalkeeper Yassine Bounou—an awkward moment after such heartbreak.
Nigeria legend John Obi Mikel didn’t sugarcoat it on Channel 4: “That miss spoils everything Diaz did in this tournament. He’s going to be devastated for weeks, maybe months.”
Former Morocco international Hassan Kachloul agreed. “Diaz will have nightmares about this for days, but that’s football. He probably changed his mind a few times before that kick. Sadly, Morocco paid the price.”
Meanwhile, Sadio Mane earned plenty of praise for dragging his teammates back onto the field after their walk-off. Former Nigeria forward Daniel Amokachi called him “an ambassador for football”, saying, “He knows what this game is all about. Morocco only have themselves to blame—they had so many chances to win.”
Kachloul added, “What really stood out was Sadio Mane. He was the one who got his team back on the pitch. It shows what kind of person he is. He saved African football—and maybe world football, too—by bringing them back.”
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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