Netherlands 1 Morocco 1(aet, 2-3 pens)
Another heavyweight out of the World Cup. It was always going to be nasty for whoever went out tonight as they both would have ben expected to go far in this tournament but something had to give and it went all the way to penalties, the first half was about as cagey as it gets with both teams not wanting to give anything up but Morocco probably edged the chances without creating anything too clear-cut. Morocco completely took over the second half possession wise but yet again there was a clear lack of any real chances for both teams until the 72nd minute when second half substitute Wout Weghorst flicked the ball on to Summerville who sped towards the box and despite slipping found Cody Gakpo in the box who blasted past Bono to put the Dutch in front with some very understandable emotional scenes in the celebration which you can understand after the weeks he’s been through. Morocco were throwing everything at the Dutch heading into added time and did equalise in added time as Chemsdine Taibi floated a beautiful cross to Issa Diop who headed past Verbruggen to score a dramatic equaliser to bring us to extra-time, extra-time was extremely cagey with both teams resigned to penalties which you would favour Morocco with Bono’s record in shootouts. The penalty shootout itself was pretty disastrous from both sides with five misses between them but it was Saibari who scored the winner to send Morocco through to the Round of 16 where they’ll be facing Canada.
Morocco’s tournament experience bearing fruits. Morocco are fast becoming one of the strongest international sides around and we saw just how strong they were yet again today, they grew stronger as the game went on gaining almost complete control in the second half before getting sucker-punched for the Netherlands goal. It looked like they were going out but up stepped Issa Diop who’s only been a Morocco player for about five minutes to score the equaliser to send it to extra-time, you can’t blame them being happy enough with penalties as Yassine Bono is a penalty expert and only had to make 1 save as the other two Dutch penalties went wide. I’ve been hesitant to say that this Morocco team is better than the one in 2022 but their experience in these tournaments now is priceless and probably got them through today, the two most impressive players for me were the full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Noussair Mazraoui with the former making a crucial tackle to keep Morocco alive when it was 1-0. Overall an absolutely brilliant result for Morocco who’ll be looking to go one step further than they did back in 2022, can they become the first African team to win the World Cup? Why not?
What do you even say about the Netherlands? It sounds like I’m talking with hindsight but I was baffled by Koeman moving to back 5 today after playing with a 4 the whole group stage, bringing in Nathan Ake at left centre-back and playing Van De Ven wing-back was ridiculous and cost the Dutch dearly today. I can understand dropping Tijani Reijnders as he’s been poor so far this tournament but changing your whole system in a huge knockout game was crazy in my opinion, the worst part of it all was that he played the back 5 for 120 minutes. I thought when he brought Koopmeiners on he was going to change system in the 71st minute but he put him left centre-back which we’ve seen at Juventus this season clearly doesn’t work, the substitutes where horrifying from Koeman as well. Bringing on Koopmeiners, Weghorst, Hato, Quienten Timber and Martin De Roon along with Justin Kluivert just for a penalty that he missed, leaving Donyell Malen on the bench for 120 minutes is criminal and sums up Ronald Koeman as a manager. We saw the warning signs against Japan and he clearly hasn’t learnt his lesson, he simply cannot be managing the Dutch at another tournament. The squad is too talented to be wasted by a coach who is terrified to lose when his side goes in front, I’d get rid if I was the Dutch federation.
What was that penalty shootout? I couldn’t really believe what I was watching in that shootout as with players missing left, right and centre, Koopmeiners stepped up first and slotted a brilliant penalty to get the Dutch underway in the shootout. Neil El Aynaoui was up first for Morocco and hit the bar to give the Dutch the advantage in the shootout, Justin Kluivert was up next for the Netherlands and as the penalty taker for Bournemouth you’d imagine he’d be cool for this penalty but no he sends the keeper the wrong way but hits the post, Soufiane Rahimi had to score next for Morocco and somehow squirmed his penalty under Verbruggen in comical fashion to bring Morocco level. Wout Weghorst stepped up and hit the penalty of the night into the top corner to put the Dutch back in the lead in the shootout, Chemsdine Taibi was next for Morocco and coolly slotted his penalty to bring us back to level terms again. Quinten Timber was next for the Netherlands at hits probably the worst penalty I’ve ever seen an absolute mile wide of the past to give Morocco the advantage in the shootout, an advantage that they didn’t take however as their main penalty taker Achraf Hakimi hit the post to put us to sudden-death in the shootout. Crysencio Summerville stepped up and had his penalty oddly saved by Bono to give Morocco a chance to win it, a chance that Ismael Saibari took with ease to send Morocco to the next round. I’d say they’ll be practising penalties in training over the next week, good viewing nonetheless.
Who will Morocco be facing in the next round? Up next will be Canada in the Round of 16 for Morocco who will undoubtedly go into that game as favourites to make the quarter-finals where there could be a rematch of the 2022 semi-final of France and Morocco which would be a cracker if it happens, I think at this point the sky is the limit for this Morocco team who are consistently now going far in international tournaments. I’d be shocked if they went out to Canada who didn’t look great against South Africa on Sunday night but that France game would be really interesting in the quarter-finals should it happen, could Morocco stun France in the quarter-finals? There’s no reason why they couldn’t.