Bono has today become the first African goalkeeper ever to save two penalties in a single #FIFAWorldCup penalty shootout.
Spain have been dumped out on the World Cup after losing 3-0 on penalties against Morocco.
Nothing could separate the teams after 120 minutes, which finished at 0-0, which meant that spot kicks would decide who would progress to the quarter finals of the tournament.
Morocco scored their first two penalties, the second scored by Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech. Spain’s second penalty, taken by Carlos Soler, was saved by Sevilla’s Bono.
Badr Benoun missed Morocco’s third kick, which gave Spain an opening. However, it was one that they did not take as Sergio Busquets’ penalty was again saved by Bono.
Only football does this. In the end, it had to be him. After two tense, enthralling, exhausting hours and seven agonising minutes lived on the edge, the moment came, Achraf Hakimi standing on the spot, the world watching. Raised in Madrid, one of 17 footballers born beyond Morocco’s frontiers who help make up this marvellous team, forged from home and the diaspora, his was the sixth penalty in the shootout. It was also an opportunity to send the Atlas Lions into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time – and eliminate the country where he grew up.
Pressure, what pressure? Hakimi barely broke into a run, virtually walking up, and dinked gently into the net. The scene was serene, the flight of the ball too but not for long, bedlam taking over. He shuffled a little dance and smiled. In front of him, fans exploded. Behind him, teammates sprinted his way. Together they made for Yassine Bounou, goalkeeper and hero who waited, arms wide. Then they fell to their knees and prayed.
A measure of how big this was came from the media. One journalist took the microphone. “I don’t have a question,” he told Bounou and the coach Walid Regragui, who has been in the job for little more than three months, “I just wanted to say thanks.” Voice breaking, in tears now, he launched into a long, emotional speech, that ended with applause.
. “I wouldn’t change anything; just their goalkeeper,” Luis Enrique insisted afterwards. Bono saved two – from Sergio Busquets and Carlos Soler – and watched the first come back off a post. It had been taken by Pablo Sarabia, who was now in tears.
How could he not be? Sarabia had not played in this tournament before he was introduced with two minutes left, precisely to take the penalty. His was the first, supposed to set Spain on their way. Instead, he struck the post for the second time in two touches. On with a post‑match mission he had unexpectedly been handed a moment before the final whistle: suddenly appearing a yard from goal, he sent the ball flying off the far post on 122.50, 10 seconds from time. Which might have helped to explain why it now happened again, the weight of responsibility too much. Crikey, this was cruel.
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