{"id":734260,"date":"2026-06-30T05:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/734260\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:42:10","slug":"morocco-sends-netherlands-to-its-earliest-world-cup-exit-after-nail-biting-penalty-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/734260\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco sends Netherlands to its earliest World Cup exit after nail-biting penalty shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"

GUADALUPE, Mexico (AP) \u2014 Ismael Saibari scored the decisive goal in a penalty shootout, and Morocco sent the Netherlands to its earliest World Cup<\/a> exit, eliminating the Dutch 3-2 after a 1-1 draw on Monday night.<\/p>\n

With the shootout tied at 2-all after four rounds, Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou made a strong save of Crysencio Summerville\u2019s attempt, batting it away with his left hand. Saibari then sent the winner into the low left corner<\/a> as goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen went the other direction. The midfielder tore off his shirt and screamed with joy as he was mobbed by teammates.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands had reached at least the Round of 16 in 11 previous World Cups, including a quarterfinal appearance four years ago in Qatar, when Morocco made a breakthrough run to the semifinals. In this year\u2019s expanded tournament, 32 teams reached the knockout stage for the first time.<\/p>\n

Morocco moves on to face Canada in the Round of 16 on Saturday in Houston.<\/p>\n

In the second round of the shootout with Morocco trailing 1-0, Verbruggen appeared to have stopped an attempt by Soufiane Rahimi, but the goalkeeper couldn\u2019t secure the ball and deflected it over the line with the back of his leg.<\/p>\n

Cody Gakpo scored in the 72nd minute for Netherlands. After the goal, which was assisted by Summerville, the Dutch bench ran onto the field to embrace the 27-year-old Gakpo, who broke down in tears. Gakpo and his partner, Noa van der Bij, recently announced that they lost their unborn child.<\/p>\n

Morocco\u2019s Issa Diop tied it in the 91st minute. Chemsdine Talbi sent a looping cross into the box from about 28 yards out on the left side and connected with Diop for a clean header<\/a> that Verbruggen had no chance to stop.<\/p>\n

Neither team had a strong scoring opportunity in 30 minutes of extra time at Estadio BBVA.<\/p>\n

It was the second game of the tournament to conclude with a shootout. Paraguay beat Germany on penalties earlier Monday.<\/p>\n

The teams entered with the highest combined ranking of any Round of 32 match. Morocco was sixth in the world and the Netherlands was seventh.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Ethan Wilcox is a student in the University of Georgia\u2019s Carmical Sports Media Institute.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GUADALUPE, Mexico (AP) \u2014 Ismael Saibari scored the decisive goal in a penalty shootout, and Morocco sent the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[316014,7824,103,53881,92382,316017,8363,7095,303801,316016,303217,6802,316015,403,99],"class_list":["post-734260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bart-verbruggen","tag-bono","tag-canada","tag-cody-gakpo","tag-crysencio-summerville","tag-ethan-wilcox","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-houston","tag-ismael-saibari","tag-issa-diop","tag-morocco-national-soccer-team","tag-netherlands","tag-netherlands-national-soccer-team","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}