If he savors the second star won thanks to the lightning of Pape Gueye ($1-0$), the Senegalese technician must face unprecedented hostility in Morocco after ordering his players to leave the pitch in the 98th minute of the final.
During his appearance at the microphone of beIN Sports, Pape Thiaw made amends regarding this mood swing which paralyzed the meeting for more than ten minutes. The Teranga Lions coach admitted that in hindsight, he did not appreciate his own gesture and apologized to the world of football. He justified this knee-jerk reaction by the accumulation of contrary decisions, notably the goal refused to Ismaïla Sarr just before the disputed penalty awarded to the Moroccans, while recognizing that refereeing errors are part of the game and do not justify such abandonment.
“We didn’t agree”he explained.
“I don’t want to go over the facts of the match. Upon reflection, I didn’t appreciate telling my players to get out at all. I apologize for the football. After some thought, I brought them back. We know what’s going on behind it. »
“We can react quickly. We may ask ourselves: ‘did this penalty exist?’ Because just before we scored a goal which was not awarded. Now we accept the referee’s mistakes, it can happen. We shouldn’t have done it but it’s done. Now we apologize to football. »
This attempt at appeasement, however, was not enough to calm tensions in Rabat. The climate has become so deleterious that Pape Thiaw had to cancel his official press conference after being violently attacked by local journalists ordering him to leave the premises. For his part,
Walid Regragui did not mince his words, describing the behavior of his counterpart as “shameful” for the image of African football. The Atlas Lions coach criticized a lack of class and stressed that this long interruption had cruelly disturbed Brahim Diaz before his failure from the penalty spot.
Despite this controversy which marred the end of the tournament, Senegal left with the trophy, leaving behind a Morocco bruised by the scenario and an atmosphere of the end of the reign. CAF could, however, take up the matter in the days to come to examine the behavior of the Senegalese bench during this voluntary interruption, a first in the history of an African Cup of Nations final.
