Prior to their round of 16 matchup against Spain at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Morocco‘s head coach Walid Regragui revealed that his team spent four days developing a gameplan.
After a scoreless draw, the Atlas Lions shocked Spain 3-0 in a shootout to go to the World Cup quarterfinals.
After 120 minutes, there was no way to separate the two teams, and Spain’s three penalties—two of which were beautifully saved by goalie Bounou—were all missed.
That left Hakimi to win it for the North Africans with his nerveless spot-kick and spark jubilant scenes in the stands at the Education City Stadium.
“We had agreed not to take possession, not out of fear,” he said.
“Nobody had managed to steal the ball from them, so I accepted not having the ball, I’m not a magician. We worked for four days on this gameplan.”
Morocco are the last African side following the exit of African champions Senegal, Ghana, Tunisia and Cameroon and also the only remaining Arab team left in the tournament.