Nigeria v Morocco, Getty Images January 15, 2026, 12:51 AM

The final match day at the 2025 African Nations Cup was just a little bit away, and the last participant in the decisive match in the battle for the trophy and, accordingly, another contender for the third place after the confrontation between two very ambitious teams of this continent, had to be determined. In Morocco these days there is a real celebration of football, because the national team of this country is not just the host of a major continental tournament, but also returned to its high rounds for the first time in a long time.

But on the way to the finals, Walid Regrahi’s team had to overcome Nigeria, which shocked not only the whole of Africa, but also the football world by not getting to the 2026 World Cup, so the internal competition for the “Super Eagles” was a chance to apologize to their own fans. However, it was clear whose side the stands in Rabat were on in a crucial moment for both teams.

And it was also the same case when the level of both teams and the quality of the performers in their composition are quite comparable, and therefore everyone tried to play on their strong qualities, while on the contrary, to level the others. The Moroccans gave the game more of a football aesthetic, while the Nigerians relied more on physics and tried to prevent their opponents from running wild in front of their own goal.

The “green and whites” were not able to do this very well at the beginning of the game, so to the accompaniment of their own stands, Morocco looked like a team that was about to open the scoring in the match. At least a couple of classy strikes from Braim Diaz and Ashraf Hakimi overtly hinted at it, but the ball sneakily missed the posts in those episodes. The Nigerians tried to respond with quick attacks, but never really got hold of the ball in the foreign penalty area before the break.

And already in the second half, it was Morocco who switched to playing on counterattacks, because the risk of losing everything on an even ground still affected the game of Regrahi’s team. Only Abde Eze occasionally reminded us that it is possible for teams to win in regular time, but his shots only troubled Nwabali in the frame of the goal, and nothing more. So we had to play overtime as well, where the highlight was Agerd’s header on the post, but the angle was so sharp that the Moroccan defender could only hit the post.

The fate of the game had to be decided in a series of post-match penalties, and here the skill of the performers already made itself felt. Well, Igamane and Chukweze’s shots on the second attempts were missed by the goalkeepers, it happens. But when, on Nigeria’s fourth attempt, Onyemaechi simply failed to see that Bunu had run into the corner to his left long before the shot, then this is already a story about the same lack of experience. The Moroccan goalkeeper even had time to react to the ball flying into his back, and thus dragged the home team to the finals of the competition, where they will play against Senegal. And Nigeria will settle for the third-place match against Egypt.

Nigeria — Morocco* 0:0 (2:4 – pen.)

Nigeria: Nwabali – Osai-Samuel, Ajayi, Bessie, Onyemaechi – Onyeka (Chukweze, 120+1), Onyedika (Simon, 83), Iwobi – Lukman – Osimgen (Onuachu, 118), Adams (Dele-Bashiru, 98).