This had been, by general agreement, the most predictable, least dramatic Cup of Nations in living memory. And that was true, until eight minutes into injury time in the final, when a video assistant referee decision contrived to produce perhaps the most ludicrous finale to any major final in history.
Senegal won it, but that is a tiny detail in the denouement that erupted. There was a walk-off in protest, a missed Panenka and a brilliant winning goal from Pape Gueye. When the final whistle went, players from both sides collapsed to the turf. For Morocco, extending the 50-year wait since their last Cup of Nations, this was agony.
The chaos began two minutes into injury time when Abdoulaye Seck was penalised for a slight push on Achraf Hakimi as he headed against a post. Ismaïla Sarr nodded in, but the whistle had already gone. Four minutes later, Adam Masina was penalised, following a VAR review, for a slight pull on Morocco’s Brahim Díaz as he defended a corner. For Senegal, already convinced there was a plot against them, that was too much and the majority of their players stormed off.
Sadio Mané seemed notably reluctant to go, and it was he who eventually ran down the tunnel to bring them back from the dressing-room after Claude Le Roy, a veteran French coach of eight African teams including Senegal, had materialised on the touchline to broker a solution alongside El Hadji Diouf; you know it’s a bonkers situation when Diouf is acting as a peacemaker.
