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International Football AFCON Semi-Finals Morocco are through to the AFCON final Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images You would have been forgiven for thinking Morocco were cruising to victory. In the 80th minute of the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final between host country Morocco and Nigeria on Wednesday night, around 60, 000 fans started jumping up and down inside the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. They were singing, waving red flags and whistling whenever a Nigerian player touched the ball. Yet the sides were drawing 0-0. Moroccan supporters have placed a huge amount of pressure on their team to win this tournament. Advertisement They are expecting a trophy parade through the streets of Rabat, the nation’s capital, next Monday. Coach Walid Regragui’s side took a huge step towards granting that wish after beating Nigeria on penalties after their semi-final ended goalless. The only time the fans slightly dropped their noise levels was towards the end of extra time, when it became clear a shootout was looming. Nobody groaned or became frustrated when Nigeria’s centre-back Calvin Bassey made another headed clearance, or goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali caught the ball from a Morocco corner. It just seemed to spur them on. Hosting the competition has its advantages, but do not underestimate the scale of Morocco’s achievement. Many will recall their run to the semi-finals of the most recent World Cup in 2022. They became the first African side to reach that stage of a World Cup, but they have underperformed at AFCON for a long time. This semi-final win will be a huge psychological boost. Last night’s match was their first AFCON semi-final since 2004. Back then, current head coach Regragui was a 28-year-old right-back in that squad, who started all of their games en route to the final, where they lost 2-1 to North African neighbours Tunisia. Current captain Achraf Hakimi had just turned five years old. Despite the fans’ confidence, Morocco needed to show resilience to overcome last night’s opponents. Veteran centre-back Romain Saiss and midfield conductor Azzedine Ounahi were unavailable due to injury. Nigeria’s Bruno Onyemaechi limited the influence of Brahim Diaz, this tournament’s top goalscorer and undisputed star so far. Hamza Igamane missed his penalty and gave Nigeria an opportunity to take a 2-1 lead during the shootout, which they wasted. Morocco completely nullified Nigeria, who had scored 14 goals in five games to reach the semis. Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman struggled to make an impact. Alex Iwobi was forced to drop deep next to his Fulham team-mate Bassey, and they kept pinging hopeful long passes towards Akor Adams. Nigeria had two shots (one on target) and 11 touches in Morocco’s box across 120 minutes of football. Advertisement The focus is always on Morocco’s ridiculous attacking talent, but they have conceded just once in six matches at this tournament — Lassine Sinayoko’s penalty for Mali in the second group stage game. It is not going to be easy for Senegal to break them down in Sunday’s final. Nigeria’s full-back Bright Osayi-Samuel later called the refereeing of Ghanaian Daniel Laryea “appalling” and said, “It’s really painful we have refs like that in big games. ” There were a couple of decisions which unfairly went against Nigeria, but nothing on the scale of the one during Cameroon’s 2-0 quarter-final loss to Morocco, when the hosts’ Adam Masina appeared to foul Bryan Mbeumo. The celebrations when it was over spoke to the scale of the achievement. Regragui ran to celebrate with his players after Youssef En-Nesyri scored the winning penalty. Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and Diaz slid across the pitch on their chests. The entire squad and backroom staff huddled together in the centre circle before lapping up the crowd’s adulation. A group of local journalists started chanting: “Allez Bono” when Morocco’s ‘keeper, who saved shootout penalties from Samuel Chukwueze and Onyemaechi, conducted a post-match press conference. The squad were surprisingly calm when they left the stadium, though. Bounou strolled out with his son, while Bilal El Khannouss was accompanied by his younger brother. Saiss and Abde Ezzalzouli chatted to a few television reporters, barely breaking into a smile. Diaz quietly said “we are in the final” as he walked past the media, but there were no wild scenes compared to Nigeria dancing with a loudspeaker after beating Algeria in the quarter-finals. It just reinforced the idea that they were never stressed about losing and that this entire nation is utterly convinced — and has been since the opening game on December 21 — that they are going to lift the AFCON trophy for the first time in 50 years. Advertisement Senegal will be challenging opponents, but you could argue this semi-final might end up being their most difficult game of the tournament. Nigeria were a force in attack and did not concede once in their three matches during the knockout phase. Bassey produced one of the best individual performances of the tournament, and his career, last night to repel Diaz, Ayoub El Kaabi and Ismael Saibari. Senegal will be without their defensive talisman Kalidou Koulibaly and midfielder Habib Diarra in the final due to suspension. Nicolas Jackson is a decent striker, but he is nowhere near the level of Osimhen. Senegal will be a little bit fresher, though, after eliminating Egypt inside 90 minutes earlier in the day. The biggest question for Nigeria after this disappointing result is why this talented generation of players can’t win crucial matches? In February 2024, they lost the AFCON final to the Ivory Coast having taken a first-half lead through William Troost-Ekong. Two months ago, they crashed out of Africa’s World Cup play-offs on penalties against the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now they have been dumped from this edition of AFCON in the final four by a Morocco side playing on home soil. Troost-Ekong told The Athletic in an interview in October that the squad had learnt from playing in “hostile” conditions against the tournament’s hosts in that previous AFCON final two years ago. The defender, who retired from international football last month, turned out to be wrong. Nigeria have failed again, while Morocco are on the cusp of becoming heroes. Jay Harris reports on Tottenham Hotspur for The Athletic. He worked for Sky Sports News for four years before he joined The Athletic in 2021 and spent three seasons covering Brentford. He covered the 2022 World Cup from Qatar and the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast. Follow Jay on Twitter @jaydmharris