For 90 minutes, the Dutch could almost taste the Round of 16.
Then Morocco did what Morocco does.
Refused to die.
In Monterrey, the Atlas Lions clawed back from the brink, equalised in stoppage time, and outlasted the Netherlands 3-2 on penalties in one of the wildest shootouts this World Cup has seen.
Morocco had been the better side all night.
Hakimi rattled the crossbar. Verbruggen kept pulling off saves. Van de Ven made a last-ditch tackle of the season.
And then… against the run of play…
👉 Summerville cut it back. Cody Gakpo finished. 1-0 Netherlands.
Koeman's bench started to breathe.
Deep into stoppage time, Talbi whipped in a cross most defenders would clear in their sleep.
Issa Diop rose. Powered it home. Silenced the orange end of the stadium.
1-1.
Extra time. Cramps. Substitutions. Gakpo limping off. A point-blank Verbruggen save on Rahimi.
No winner.
Straight to the lottery.
This is where it gets cinematic.
Three Dutch misses. One Moroccan hero.
The man who knocked the Netherlands out?
Ismael Saibari. PSV midfielder.
Has played his entire professional career in the Netherlands.
Learned his football there. Lives there. Then sent the Dutch home from their own World Cup dream.
You couldn't script it.
Morocco — the same team that shocked the world by reaching the semi-finals in Qatar 2022 — march on.
Next stop: Canada, with a quarter-final spot on the line.
The Netherlands fly home haunted by a match they were seconds away from winning.
Because in tournament football, the scoreboard doesn't care who deserved it.
Only who held their nerve.
And tonight, Morocco did.
That's all for now!
