The national team coach, Walid Regragui, has stated that the extensive waiting time before the penalty in added time “disturbed” Brahim Díaz, resulting in his “panenka” attempt being stopped.
The situation arose after a controversial VAR decision that decreed a foul by El Hadji Malick Diouf on Díaz inside the area, awarding a penalty in favor of the home team in the eighth minute of added time. This triggered an altercation between both teams, and the Senegal players left the field in protest, following the instructions of their coach, Pape Thiaw. After a delay of 14 minutes, the Senegalese players returned to the field.
In total, Díaz had to wait 17 minutes before taking the penalty, which he ultimately shot directly into the hands of Édouard Mendy.
Thiaw’s team finally took the victory in the final, thanks to Pape Gueye’s goal in the fourth minute of extra time.
It was a bitter end for Díaz, who, despite this, won the Golden Boot of the tournament thanks to his five goals.
He had a lot of time before taking the penalty, which surely disturbed him. But we can’t change what happened. That’s how he decided to take the penalty. Now we must look forward.
Walid Regragui
“The game we had was shameful for Africa,” he added.
Regragui also criticized the attitude of Senegal’s coach, Pape Thiaw:
When a coach asks his players to leave the field, when he says things he had already said in the press conference before the match… he needs to maintain class, both in victory and in defeat.
Walid Regragui
Regragui concluded: “What Pape did tonight does not honor Africa. Now he is African champion, so he can say what he wants, but they stopped the match for more than 10 minutes. This does not excuse Brahim for the way he took the penalty, he took it like that and we have to accept it. We need to look forward and accept that Brahim missed it.”
