World Cup 2026 finally finds its secret sauce as peril and jeopardy at last enter the chat<\/a><\/p>\nThe shootout capped a gripping encounter in Monterrey that swung repeatedly in both teams\u2019 favour, with Cody Gakpo\u2019s emotional second-half opener cancelled out by Issa Diop\u2019s stoppage-time header before neither team could find a winner in extra time.<\/p>\n
Thousands of Morocco supporters erupted at the final whistle in the last World Cup match to be played in Monterrey, while many local fans celebrated with them after backing the African side throughout the evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know this type of game, we know against who we play,\u201d Hakimi said. \u201cWe have to be focused and be strong physically but also mentally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say thank you for Mexico for the support, all the Moroccans that came to support us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morocco fashioned the better chances before the break, with goalkeeper Verbruggen producing a series of outstanding saves to deny Ayoub Bouaddi\u2019s close-range header and Neil El Aynaoui\u2019s powerful effort.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Bounou was finally called into action to parry Micky van de Ven\u2019s long-range strike.<\/p>\n
Hakimi rattled the crossbar and forced another save from Verbruggen as the Dutch struggled to contain the full back\u2019s runs from deep before Ronald Koeman\u2019s introduction of Wout Weghorst gave his side a much-needed focal point in attack.<\/p>\n
The Atlas Lions enjoyed vocal backing throughout, with many Mexican supporters adopting Morocco for the night and reviving chants of \u201cNo era penal (It wasn\u2019t a penalty)\u201d, recalling the controversial penalty that helped the Netherlands eliminate Mexico at the 2014 World Cup.<\/p>\n
An emotional opener for Gakpo<\/p>\n
The substitute\u2019s impact was immediate as he won a flick-on that released Summerville, whose persistence created the opening for Gakpo to sweep a first-time finish beyond Bounou in the 72nd minute.<\/p>\n
Playing days after he and his partner lost their unborn son during pregnancy, Gakpo broke down in tears as teammates rushed to embrace him.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands looked increasingly comfortable, with captain Virgil van Dijk producing a crucial intervention to deny Saibari as Morocco threw numbers forward in search of an equaliser.<\/p>\n
But just as the Dutch appeared set to see out the victory, substitute Chemsdine Talbi delivered a pinpoint cross from the left and Diop rose above Van Dijk to power a stoppage-time header beyond Verbruggen, sending the match into extra time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game plan was working,\u201d Van Dijk said. \u201cIn the end, in stoppage time, you get pushed back. Then it goes to penalties and then\u2026 unfortunately, we\u2019re eliminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course there are always things that could be better, but that doesn\u2019t help us now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Momentum swung from end to end, with the Netherlands threatening on the counter as Morocco chased the game, but could not make their pressure count in open play.<\/p>\n
Having weathered Gakpo\u2019s emotional opener and survived Hakimi\u2019s missed chance to settle the shootout, Morocco held their nerve when it mattered most to keep their World Cup dream alive and book a date with Canada in Houston on Saturday.<\/p>\n
READ: Koeman defiant after Dutch defeat with five-man defence: \u2018I\u2019d do it again\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morocco beat the Netherlands 3-2 on penalties on Monday to reach the World Cup last 16 after their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-525475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}