The Teranga Lions of Senegal this Sunday night, January 18, 2026, narrowly beat hard-fighting Atlas Lions of Morocco to emerge champions of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
The West Africans, 2021 edition winners in Cameroon, won the ultimate prize in African football for the second time courtesy of an extra time goal at the 69,000-capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
It was a night of drama that saw the match abandoned for minutes after referee Jean-Jacques Ndala awarded a penalty with seconds left of the match after going to the screen to review an incident in which El Hadji Malick Diouf appeared to drag Brahim Díaz to the ground by the forward’s neck as the ball is crossed in.
The Senegalese players protested vehemently and walked out of the pitch in anger, thus disrupting the match. However, they later returned following appeals by Sadio Mane.
But Morocco’s celebration became cut short after Diaz, the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals, who took the kick, shot into the waiting hands of goalie Édouard Mendy.
The match thereafter went into extra time, with Papa Gueye deciding the encounter four minutes into extra-time after driving forward, shrugging off Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi, and hammering a strike beyond goalie Yassine Bounou and into the top corner, in off the bar.
(News Express)
