Thursday 22 January 2026 – 21:14
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw said on Thursday that his decision to send players toward the dressing rooms in the closing minutes of the Africa Cup of Nations final against Morocco was driven by what he described as a moment of emotional reaction to perceived refereeing injustice.
In a statement posted on social media, Thiaw said the match ended under intense tension after a Senegal goal was disallowed and a penalty awarded to Morocco in stoppage time, prompting frustration within the Senegal camp. He said his initial decision was intended to protect his players rather than to undermine the game or its rules.
Thiaw added that discussions with his technical staff and players led to a return to the pitch to complete the match, which he said was done out of respect for Senegalese supporters. He acknowledged that the tournament had been marked by a high organisational and technical standard, despite what he called a dramatic ending.
The Senegal coach issued explicit apologies to anyone offended by his conduct, including Morocco coach Walid Regragui, and said emotional reactions were inevitable in high stakes finals. He praised his 28 players as “warriors” who gave everything for their country.
Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from content and romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this “This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info” and “#” put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation, and don’t publish clone new content more than just one time
