Morocco forced to wait for AFCON knockout place after Mali draw
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Morocco's Brahim Diaz shoots from the penalty spot to score against Mali in the Africa Cup of Nations.
AFP
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RABAT – Morocco missed the chance to guarantee their spot in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations after Lassine Sinayoko’s second-half penalty earned Mali a 1-1 draw with the hosts on Friday.
The match was a tale of two spot-kicks, with Brahim Diaz giving Morocco the lead from a penalty deep in first-half injury time and Sinayoko replying on 64 minutes.
The stalemate at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in the capital Rabat ended Morocco’s world record winning run which had been taken to 19 matches with their 2-0 victory over Comoros in the tournament’s opening game.
It also means Morocco have not yet confirmed their place in the knockout phase, although they are on top of Group A with four points from two games.
Mali come next on two points alongside Zambia, who drew 0-0 with minnows Comoros earlier in Casablanca.
Morocco next face Zambia on Monday and a victory in that match against the 2012 champions will ensure that the hosts go through as group winners.
“We’ll look back at the second half and see what the problem was but we didn’t play the way we did in the first half. We didn’t impose our game and had to drop off. The penalty changed the game a bit,” Morocco midfielder Azzedine Ounahi told broadcaster beIN Sports.
“We go into the third game with the same approach, to win the game and finish top of the group.”
Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi, the African player of the year, was again an unused substitute as he continues his recovery from an ankle injury suffered playing for Paris Saint-Germain at the start of November.
His former PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe, the current Real Madrid superstar and France skipper, was among the spectators in the crowd of 63,844 and appeared to be wearing a Morocco shirt with Hakimi’s No. 2 on it.
With Hakimi on the sidelines, Mbappe’s Real Madrid teammate Diaz was the main attraction on the pitch – the little No. 10 forced a good save from Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra on 17 minutes and then played a key part in the penalty which led to the opening goal just before the interval.
Mali defender Nathan Gassama brushed the ball with his hand as he tried to stop Diaz dribbling past him inside the box, and the referee eventually awarded a spot-kick following a lengthy look at the VAR monitor.
However Walid Regragui’s side, the best team in Africa according to the FIFA rankings, could not build on that as Mali won a penalty of their own just after the hour mark.
Auxerre striker Sinayoko kept his cool to stroke in the reward and restore parity.
Elsewhere, Mohamed Salah scored as 10-man Egypt beat South Africa 1-0 in Agadir to become the first qualifiers for the knockout stage.
The Liverpool star converted a penalty on 45 minutes, and South Africa were denied a spot-kick late in the second half when Yasser Ibrahim appeared to handle the ball inside the box. AFP, REUTERS
