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.
Mbappe watches on
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 number two on it.
With Hakimi on the sidelines, Mbappe’s Real Madrid teammate Diaz was the main attraction on the pitch — the little number 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 pitchside VAR monitor.
Morocco’s Soufiane Rahimi had a spot-kick saved against Comoros but this time Diaz sent the goalkeeper the wrong way for his second goal of the tournament.
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.
Sinayoko went down under a clumsy challenge by Jawad El Yamiq and 29-year-old Cameroonian referee Abdoul Abdel Mefire awarded the penalty after eventually being called over to check his screen.
Auxerre striker Sinayoko, having been booked apparently for something he said to the referee, kept his cool to stroke in the reward and restore parity.
Morocco substitute Youssef En-Nesyri was denied by a good Diarra save and Mali then held on through 10 minutes of stoppage time for a point, as the final whistle was greeted with jeers from the home fans.
