Morocco and Senegal set to meet in final as Africa Cup is criticised as predictable

The Africa Cup of Nations final will be contested by hosts Morocco and Senegal after a tournament that, critics say, has been largely predictable and devoid of shocks despite good playing conditions. The better teams have kept winning, producing a lot of good football but not much that is memorable, the report said, and the competition has been an organiser’s dream: 44 games produced quarter-finals featuring the eight teams who were highest-ranked for the draw.

The group stage lost jeopardy, with the 16 qualifiers known with six games remaining; two-thirds of third-placed sides went through and teams level on points were separated by head-to-head rather than goal difference, while half of the last-16 matches were described as box-ticking exercises.

For only the second time this century, neither of the managers of the finalists is foreign: Senegal’s Pape Thiaw was born in Dakar and developed as a player in France and elsewhere, while Walid Regragui was born in a Paris suburb, was capped 44 times by Morocco and coached in Rabat, Casablanca and Qatar.

All of the semi-finalists were coached by Africans, the first time that has happened since 1965. The tournament has also reflected the influence of the diaspora: roughly a third of players were born outside Africa, only 14 of Morocco’s 28 were born in Morocco and only 15 of Senegal’s squad in Senegal, and across the two finalists’ squads 14 players were born in France, five in Spain and three each in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Key Topics

Sports, Morocco, Senegal, Afcon, Walid Regragui, Pape Thiaw