Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was the hero with two saves in the shoot-out as hosts Morocco beat Nigeria 4-2 on penalties to set up an Africa Cup of Nations final showdown this weekend with Senegal after a tense last-four clash on Wednesday finished 0-0 at the end of extra time.Bounou saved from Samuel Chukwueze and brilliantly from Bruno Onyemaechi, allowing Youssef En-Nesyri to convert the winning kick and spark wild celebrations inside the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.There was joy but also relief for Hamza Igamane, who had appeared distraught after his kick — Morocco’s second in the shoot-out — was saved by Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.He was the only Moroccan player to fail to score in the shoot-out, however, with captain and talisman Achraf Hakimi among those who converted their penalties.Morocco will now play Senegal on Sunday for the title after the Lions of Teranga defeated Mohamed Salah’s Egypt 1-0 in the other semi-final earlier in Tangiers thanks to a Sadio Mane goal.That will be a clash between the top two African sides in the FIFA world rankings and a fitting showpiece for the tournament.Walid Regragui’s Morocco have been under enormous pressure to deliver a first AFCON title for their country in half a century but will be confident of coming out on top with their support behind them.However, as their dream remains alive it is an agonising way for Nigeria’s hopes to end, two years after they lost the final to the hosts in Ivory Coast.Led by two recent winners of the African player of the year prize in Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman, Nigeria had been arguably the best team at the tournament up to the semi-finals and the top scorers with 14 goals in their first five matches.But they created next to nothing during the 120 minutes here and must now settle for Saturday’s third-place play-off against Egypt in Casablanca before watching the World Cup from afar following their failure to qualify.- Home advantage -Doubts about the Moroccan team’s ability to handle the enormous pressure of playing at home had dissipated following their 2-0 win over Cameroon in the quarter-finals.They were hoping to use the 65,458 crowd in the capital to their advantage and show why they are ranked 11th in the world, above the likes of Italy.The 2022 World Cup semi-finalists had been whistled by their own fans at times during the group phase here, but this time those supporters — after applauding the Nigerian national anthem — did their bit by responding to any Super Eagles spell of possession with deafening jeers.A frenetic opening spell to the contest saw the Moroccan winger Brahim Diaz -– probably the tournament’s outstanding player -– curl a shot just wide before Alex Iwobi teed up Lookman at the other end for a shot that was well saved.Morocco had chances, including a free-kick from Hakimi that hit the side-netting and a shot from Ismael Saibari that was well saved by Nwabali.However, the second half was more tense and featured fewer chances, with Moroccan fans appealing loudly but in vain for a penalty when the ball rebounded up off Calvin Bassey’s leg onto his arm in the box.The clock ran down on normal time and the spectre of penalties grew larger as the extra half-hour went on.It seemed that Nigeria, having hardly threatened during the match itself, were settling for the shoot-out, even taking off Osimhen as they hoped to repeat their win on penalties in the 2024 semi-final against South Africa.However, Regragui’s Morocco had also famously won on penalties against Spain at the last World Cup and they repeated the trick here to reach the final of their Cup of Nations.
