Win over the Netherlands
\n Monterrey
\nMorocco beat the Netherlands 3-2 on penalties on Monday to reach the World Cup last 16 after their Round of 32 tie ended 1-1 following extra time, setting up a meeting with co-hosts Canada.
\nIsmael Saibari converted the winning spot kick after Yassine Bounou saved Crysencio Summerville\u2019s penalty, sending Morocco through after a dramatic contest in which they had forced extra time with a stoppage-time equaliser. Morocco\u2019s Neil El Aynaoui and Dutch substitute Justin Kluivert missed their attempts before Bart Verbruggen appeared to save Soufiane Rahimi\u2019s effort, only for the ball to squirm underneath him and trickle over the line.
\nQuinten Timber then put the ball wide with the Dutch side\u2019s fourth kick, Achraf Hakimi struck the post with the chance to seal victory before Saibari kept his nerve to send Morocco through.
\nThe shootout capped a gripping encounter in Monterrey that swung repeatedly in both teams\u2019 favour, with Cody Gakpo\u2019s emotional second-half opener cancelled out by Issa Diop\u2019s stoppage-time header before neither team could find a winner in extra time.
\nMorocco fashioned the better chances before the break, with goalkeeper Verbruggen producing a series of outstanding saves to deny Ayoub Bouaddi\u2019s close-range header and Neil El Aynaoui\u2019s powerful effort. At the other end, Bounou was finally called into action to parry Micky van de Ven\u2019s long-range strike.
\nHakimi rattled the crossbar and forced another save from Verbruggen as the Dutch struggled to contain the full back\u2019s runs from deep before Ronald Koeman\u2019s introduction of Wout Weghorst gave his side a much-needed focal point in attack.
\nEmotional opener
\nThe substitute\u2019s impact was immediate as he won a flick-on that released Summerville, whose persistence created the opening for Gakpo to sweep a first-time finish beyond Bounou in the 72nd minute.
\nPlaying days after he and his partner lost their unborn son during pregnancy, Gakpo broke down in tears as teammates rushed to embrace him.
\nThe Netherlands looked increasingly comfortable, with captain Virgil van Dijk producing a crucial intervention to deny Saibari as Morocco threw numbers forward in search of an equaliser.
\nBut just as the Dutch appeared set to see out the victory, substitute Chemsdine Talbi delivered a pinpoint cross from the left and Diop rose above Van Dijk to power a stoppage-time header beyond Verbruggen, sending the match into extra time.
\nMomentum swung from end to end, with the Netherlands threatening on the counter as Morocco chased the game, but could not make their pressure count in open play.
\nHaving weathered Gakpo\u2019s emotional opener and survived Hakimi\u2019s missed chance to settle the shootout, Morocco held their nerve when it mattered most to keep their World Cup dream alive and book a date with Canada in Houston on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Win over the Netherlands Monterrey Morocco beat the Netherlands 3-2 on penalties on Monday to reach the World Cup last 16 after their Round of 32 tie ended 1-1 following extra time, setting up a meeting with co-hosts Canada. Ismael Saibari converted the winning spot kick after Yassine Bounou saved Crysencio Summerville\u2019s penalty, sending Morocco …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":99652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99686,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99676\/revisions\/99686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}