Key events
8 min Ezzalzouli scoots away from Antoine Mendy on the left and slides a low cross that is booted away at the far post by Diouf.
6 min I’m not certain Pape Gueye’s effort was even on target. He headed it back across goal rather than into the sizeable gap between Bounou and the near post. It was a glorious chance.
5 min: Big chance for Senegal! Mane hurtles down the left to win a corner. It’s curled beyond the far post and met by Pape Gueye, whose header is kept out desperately by Bounou! It was a fine stop, especially becauise he originally misjudged the flight of the ball, but Gueye really should have scored.
4 min A cautious start, as you’d expect. Morocco in particular are moving their pawns around without risk.
2 min I forgot to say that Mamadou Sarr, who plays tonight due to Kalidou Koulibaly’s suspension, is the son of Pape Sarr – who himself missed the 2002 Afcon final through suspension. It’s a game, it’s old, and it’s funny.
1 min Peep peep! Morocco, in their white change strip (don’t ask), kick off from right to left as we watch.
After a spectacular rendition of the Moroccan anthem, it’s time for the main event: the Afcon 2025 final.
Yes I know it’s 18 January 2026, what’s your point? Don’t split hairs with me because I’ve had it with you.
A follow-up from James Humphries (see below)
I cleared my diary* to watch both semis, proving that despite this world-weary affect I am in fact the last of the romantics, or possibly just very bad at pattern recognition.
* not, admittedly, a Herculean task (as it were)
The Senegal right-back Krepin Diatta was injured in the warm-up, hence Antoine Mendy’s inclusion. I can’t comprehend how painful it must be for a player to miss out on the biggest game of their life in such circumstances.
“Hi Rob,” writes James Humphries. “Having specifically timed a journey across the central belt so that I should make it back home in time for the start of the game, if the first ten minutes are fantastic and then it turns into something like either of the two semis you’ll know I got in late.
”Egypt-Cote d’Ivoire was such a fun game, too! ‘Maybe Egypt have unconstipated themselves’ I thought optimistically on Thursday, until the first moment one of their players got near a Senegalese shirt and immediately hurled himself to the ground. So, about five minutes into the game?”
You made it home in time for that one then?
Morocco’s route to the final
Group A Comoros 2-0, Mali 1-1, Zambia 3-0
Last 16 Tanzania 1-0
Quarter-final Cameroon 2-0
Semi-final Nigeria 0-0 (4-2 pens)
The only goal Morocco have conceded was a penalty by Mali’s Lassine Sinayoko
Senegal’s route to the final
Senegal’s 12 goals have been spread throughout the team, with eight different goalscorers.
Team news
Morocco are unchanged from the semi-final win over Nigeria. Senegal make three changes: Lamine Camara, Antoine Mendy and Mamadou Sarr come in for Krepin Diatta and the suspended pair of Kalidou Koulibaly and Habib Diarra.
Senegal (4-3-3) E Mendy; A Mendy, M Sarr, Niakhate, Diouf; L Camara, I Gueye, P Gueye; I Ndiaye, Jackson, Mane.
Subs: Diaw, Y Diouf, M Camara, Ciss, Dia, Diallo, Jakobs, Mbaye, C Ndiaye, Niang, Sabaly, I Sarr, P Sarr, Seck.
Morocco (4-1-4-1) Bounou; Hakimi, Aguerd, Masina, Mazraoui; El Aynaoui; Diaz, El Khannouss, Saibari, Ezzalzouli; El Kaabi.
Subs: Munir, Al Harrar, Akhomach, Ait Boudlal, Amrabat, Belammari, Chibi, El Yamiq, Igamane, Rahimi, Saiss, Salah-Eddine, Talbi, Targhalline.
Referee Jean Jacques Ngambo Ndala (DR Congo).
Jonathan Wilson
Sometimes a tournament’s greatest strength can be its greatest weakness. In part because of the excellent playing conditions, this has been an Africa Cup of Nations devoid of shocks. The better teams keep winning. There has been a lot of good football, but not a huge amount of memorable football.
And the consequence is that, in the final, we have the two best teams, or certainly the best team in north Africa against the best team in sub-Saharan Africa: the hosts and World Cup semi-finalists Morocco against Senegal, who have reached three of the past four Afcon finals.
Preamble
You’ve got a nerve, turning up here expecting a goalfest. Major finals don’t work like that; Afcon finals certainly don’t. The last 10 have produced only 10 goals – and that includes four periods of extra-time. The stakes are too high to worry about entertainment.
Tonight, in Rabat, either Morocco or Senegal will become champions of Africa for only the second time. That’s where the similarities end. Morocco are desperate to win for two reasons: they are the hosts, and it’s 50 years since they last won the competition. Tonight’s match is only their second final in that time, an unfathomably poor record for such a revered football nation.
Senegal hope to make a different kind of history. This is their third Afcon final in the last four, and they lost on penalties to the eventual winners Ivory Coast in the other one. Victory tonight would create a legacy as one of African football’s greatest teams.
One way or another, history will be made. May the best team win, and to hell with the entertainment. This is about a whole lot more than entertainment,
Kick off 7pm GMT, 8pm in Rabat.
