Morocco beat France 5-4 in the penalty shootout, after having finished 1-1 in the 90 minutes of regulation and the 30 minutes of extra time, with a great performance by goalkeeper Ibrahim Gomis, and reached the final of the Under 20 World Cup for the first time in its history.
Younes El Bahraoui, Ilias Boumassaoudi, Yassir Zabiri, Saad El Haddad and Naïm Byar were responsible for converting the African team’s shots, while French goalkeeper Lisandru Olmeta deflected Mohamed Hamony’s shot.
For his part, goalkeeper Abdelhakim El Mesbahi, who had entered due to Ibrahim Gomis’ injury – in turn he had entered earlier due to another Yanis Benchaouch injury – was the great figure with two saves against Gady Beyuku and Djylian N’Guessan.
Lucas Michal, Elyaz Zidane, Gabin Bernardeau and Moustapha Dabo scored for the European team. In regulation time, goalkeeper Lisandru Olmeta against for Morocco, and Lucas Michal for France had scored the two goals of the match.
France ended up with ten players due to the expulsion of Rabby Nzingoula two minutes into the second overtime.
The start was even for both teams, with a lot of movement in both areas and insistence on finding the rival goal, but with Morocco a little more forceful in the offensive actions, with a lot of play on the wings against a French defense with some doubts.
However, France began to gain ground and was encouraged to be more of a protagonist with the ball, although without being deep in the last meters, something that the African team took advantage of to take the initiative again in the European field.
At 30 minutes of the first half, inside the France area there was a grab by defender Andrea Le Borgne on the Moroccan center back Ismaël Baouf that prevented him from heading the ball, and after the VAR review, the Uruguayan referee Gustavo Tejera gave a penalty to Morocco.
Striker Yassir Zabiri took the penalty in the 32nd minute, but his cross-footed shot hit the post, although he was fortunate that it bounced off the back of goalkeeper Lisandru Olmeta and into the goal for the African team’s 1-0 lead.
For the second stage, France was not left with the goal against and came out with everything to hit Morocco, until in the 14th minute, after a great filtered pass from Mayssam Benama, Moustapha Dabo’s low center from the right and Michal’s subtle touch for the French tie.
The Moroccan team put more pressure on France during the last part of the 90 minutes of regulation, with a lot of deep play in the middle of the field but the European defense broke the baseline well and left the Africans in an advanced position on several occasions.
At the beginning of extra time, the duel was quite even, with intentions on both sides although increasingly lighter due to the fatigue of both teams after more than 100 minutes of play, but Morocco had hope with the expulsion of Rabby Nzingoula, who received the second yellow for a grab.
