World Cup
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Cup 2026
Ismael Saibari celebrates scoring Morocco's winning penalty Carl Recine/Getty Images
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Morocco are through to the last 16 of the World Cup — but that only tells half the story.
A remarkable match was settled by a chaotic penalty shootout which Morocco won 3-2, with five kicks out of 10 missed and only one saved. It extended the Netherlands’ miserable record in shootouts at World Cups: they have only won one of five at the tournament.
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It was a breathless finish but there was huge drama beforehand, too — including perhaps the World Cup’s most emotional moment so far when the Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo opened the scoring in the 72nd minute.
After doing so, Gakpo sank to his knees and started to cry. He and his partner, Noa van der Bij, are mourning the loss of their baby son during pregnancy and there was no holding back the tears as he climbed to his feet and pointed to the heavens.
But the drama was not over. There was Issa Diop’s stoppage-time equaliser, a remarkable save by Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen in extra time and then the shootout madness.
The Athletic’s Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero and Thom Harris discuss the big talking points.
The narrative was set as we headed into our second penalty shootout of the day; while one goalkeeper, Verburggen, was in unstoppable form, the other, Yassine Bounou, boasted much stronger spot-kick saving credentials. He stopped two Spanish penalties in the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup, while he prevented two more in the Africa Cup of Nations against Nigeria in January to see his country through to the final.
Well, he had no chance with the first Dutch attempt as Teun Koopmeiners thumped his spot-kick into the bottom right-hand corner. Neil El Aynaoui then rattled the crossbar, giving Justin Kluivert the chance to put the Netherlands ahead.
It wasn’t to be. He stuttered and waited for Bounou to move before hitting the base of the left post. It keeps a remarkable statistic going — nine of the last 11 players to be substituted on after the 110th minute in the World Cup or the European Championship have missed their penalty in a shootout.
The drama continued as Soufiane Rahimi faced up to Verbruggen once again from 12 yards. The goalkeeper made a remarkable save once again before the ball squirmed underneath his body, spun into his foot, and rolled over the line.
The next two penalties were more conventional, dispatched emphatically by Wout Weghorst and Chemsdine Talbi. 2-2.
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But then Quentin Timber smashed the ball wide after a short run-up before Achraf Hakimi smashed the same part of the post that Kluivert had hit minutes earlier.
After eight penalties, only four had been scored, and there was another miss to come. Crysencio Summerville blasted the ball down the middle but Bounou sidestepped to his right and almost casually punched the ball away with his left arm, giving Ismael Saibari the chance to win it.
He duly converted, sending Morocco through after what may go down as one of the craziest shootouts in this tournament’s long history.
Thom Harris
There could not have been a more popular scorer for the Netherlands.
When Gakpo appeared in the box to slot home after Summerville had been left in a heap in the penalty area, the Liverpool forward was instantly mobbed by his team-mates. He emerged with his face in his shirt and visibly emotional.
The goal had huge significance for the Netherlands, but especially for Gakpo, given what he and Van der Bij have been through following the death of their son. Koeman said there was “never a moment” in which Gakpo had asked to leave the tournament to go back to his family and added that he had dealt with things “in his own way”.
But his celebration was another reminder there are things which are more important than the game — and it was easy to understand the outpouring of emotion. Watching in the stands, his parents were overcome by the moment, too.
It was undoubtedly the most heart-wrenching moment of the World Cup so far.
Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero
On the one hand, a team full of Premier League-proven players adapting and responding to a pressure-cooker environment. On the other, a Morocco side who wouldn’t give up without a fight and who showcased brilliant moments of quality.
It felt like we were spoiled by this round-of-32 tie.
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The Dutch have been as intriguing to watch as ever, while Morocco brought all of the excitement of their 2022 run to the semi-finals when they became the first African side to reach that milestone. The noise when they equalised through Diop was deafening, with the defender’s first goal for his country greeted with drinks raining down from the stands.
“Even if we have to leave now, there’s been a lot of good moments,” Koeman told reporters yesterday, but you know he didn’t mean it. Either the Dutch were going to be the victims of fine margins at a major tournament yet again — think Argentina at World Cup 2022 or England at Euro 2024 — or the Moroccans’ rise over the past few years was going to be checked.
In the end, it was the Netherlands who missed out, and Morocco who progressed to face Canada, but this game was played on a knife-edge. And we enjoyed every second of it.
Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero
It almost didn’t make sense on first viewing. As Rahimi chopped inside with a smooth drop of the shoulder, the goal opened up. Our brains have seen that ball nestle in the far corner so many times from that situation, so it was quite the optical illusion when it bobbled wide to the left.
Verbruggen did incredibly well to narrow the angle as the striker bore down on goal, shifting over slightly to block the usual finish, tempting Rahimi to go for the more unconventional near-post drive. But actually saving the strike from such close range was a different thing altogether, throwing up a knee and somehow diverting a thumped effort onto his outstretched hand and away.
Up until that moment, it had been another quietly accomplished performance from the 23-year-old. He has evolved into one of the best ball-playing goalkeepers around for Brighton & Hove Albion, taking on huge responsibility in their risky build-up approach, while he was also among the best shot-stoppers in the Premier League per expected goals on target (xGOT) statistics.
Thom Harris
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Jan Paul van Hecke had quite the night in Monterrey.
Following a crunching tackle on Saibari after six minutes, the Netherlands defender almost took a boot to the face as the pair tussled for a long ball. They squared up, pushed, and the Dutchman trudged off with a scowl on his face.
Half an hour later, it was Azzedine Ounahi who collided elbow-first with Van Hecke. He then fell to the ground in the penalty area as the studs of Noussair Mazraoui inadvertently grazed his head.
It was the most gruesome of Van Hecke’s first-half scrapes as blood seeped through his bleach-blond hair, summing up arguably the World Cup’s most physical contest to date.
The first half in particular was a frantic affair in which the ball was constantly up for grabs. Van Hecke was involved in another flying challenge towards the end of the half while Mazraoui crunched into four tackles in the first 45 minutes alone.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of that opening period was that there were no yellow cards shown by Wilton Sampaio, the referee who sent off three players in the World Cup’s opening game (Mexico vs South Africa).
Thom Harris
With Van Hecke, Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Ake and Micky van de Ven all in the starting line-up, Dutch manager Koeman selected four traditional centre-backs, alongside attacking full-back Denzel Dumfries down the right, to switch to a back five for the first time this tournament.
With the pace and direct off-ball running of Hakimi down the right, Van de Ven was brought into a wing-back role to keep track of him. In a sense, Koeman’s caution was justified when the Tottenham Hotspur defender steamed back to tackle Hakimi on 55 minutes.
At the same time, the Dutch shape made it difficult for them to apply pressure of their own with the ball. Dumfries was a little hesitant to push on during build-up and when he did receive the ball high up, he often had to come backwards. Van de Ven was mostly restricted to moments wide on the touchline.
Koeman finally switched things up on 70 minutes, bringing off Ake for the towering Weghorst. It yielded almost instant results as the former Manchester United man flicked on a clearance into the path of Summerville, who squared to Gakpo to score.
Thom Harris
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It isn’t easy to outsing the Dutch. Usually, Netherlands fans are the ones who set the tone in international tournament games with their infectious ‘Links Rechts’ rhythm.
Here though, Morocco supporters had the beating of their counterparts in the stands — thanks in no small part to some help from the locals. The Mexico faithful have a long memory, judging by the chants of “no era penal” — it wasn’t a penalty — that were being belted out by the sixth minute.
That was a reference to a contentious spot kick given to the Netherlands against Mexico in the 2014 World Cup round of 16, which led to El Tri being eliminated. Mexicans still maintain that was a dive by Arjen Robben rather than a foul by Rafa Marquez, and so they gave their full backing to the North African side here.
Van Dijk had disagreed with a local reporter who suggested Mexicans would want his team to lose. How wrong he was.
Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero
Morocco will play Canada in Houston on July 4 (1pm ET).
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