A goal that we will perhaps see again in a hundred years.

His phenomenal relaxation trapped goalkeeper Diogo Costa, who came out at the wrong time, and central defender Ruben Dias, largely dominated (42nd).

On a perfect cross from Yahya Attiat-Allah, the Sevillian powerfully lowered his head, the ball hit the ground to bounce and lift the roof of the net, at the same time as it broke the glass ceiling of Africa.

Cameroon had failed the first in the quarter-finals against England (3-2 ap) in 1990, despite Roger Milla, his 38 years and his four goals in previous matches.

In 2002, the Senegal of El-Hadji Diouf had stopped at the golden goal against Turkey (1-0 beo).

Before En-Nesyri, the Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan had passed closest to the last four, but he had smashed his last-minute penalty (120th + 2) on the Uruguayan crossbar, after the famous voluntary hand of Luis Suarez, in 2010 .

"The Meaning of Sacrifice"

The Sevillian did not tremble, on his strong point, the head game.

He had already scored by jumping higher than the Spaniards at the 2018 World Cup (2-2), and with Sevilla FC, he scored a nice bouquet of headed goals.

Moroccan Youssef En-Nesyri on December 10, 2022 in Doha © NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP

"En-Nesyri is very tall, he is very good with his head," noted Jorge Sampaoli, his coach in Andalusia.

The Morocco striker has "a heading game that is not a habit in Morocco, where we practice the short game more in the neighborhoods", explains to AFP Nasser Larguet, who discovered the kid in school sport at Fez.

"I set my sights on him at the age of 12, he belongs to the first promotion of the Mohamed VI Academy", which relaunched training in Morocco, continues the former Marseille coach.

This historic goal is a great reward for a player whose coaches highlight the generosity.

"The sense of sacrifice he already had very young, we did not have a lot of work," smiles Larguet, who was also National Technical Director (DTN) of Morocco.

As always, En-Nesyri also defended fiercely, hampering Portuguese raises and threatening Diogo.

Relaxation à la Ronaldo

He left shortly after the hour mark, with perhaps a little gas still in the tank, turning on himself to applaud the ovation of the stadium.

He fell into the arms of Regragui (65th), replaced by Walid Cheddira, who ended up excluded on two yellows at the very end of the match.

En-Nesyri "is very generous, sometimes it plays tricks on him in front of goal, he loses a little efficiency so much he has given", notes Larguet.

But not this time.

"Nobody considers El-Nesyri to be worthy," insists Walid Regragui.

The coach had announced that his center forward would be at the World Cup the day he unveiled his large pre-list of 55 names.

Moroccan Youssef En-Nesyri scores against Portugal on December 10, 2022 in Doha © MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

"He's a talent and a top player who does what I ask of him, he runs everywhere and he always thinks about the team," said Regragui.

Yet En-Nesyri has suffered from criticism this season, he has not regained his starting place in Seville.

He had only scored two goals in competition, in the Champions League, one for honor at Borussia Dortmund (4-1) and the other against FC Copenhagen (3-0).

But he has appeared in ten Spanish La Liga matches without scoring.

His status has now changed, this relaxation à la Cristiano Ronaldo, who has still not scored a single goal in the knockout phase of the World Cup, in five participations, has propelled him into the legends of the tournament.

With this third goal in the World Cup, he also overtook his compatriots Abderrazak Khairi (two goals in 1986) and Salaheddine Bassir and Abdeljalil Hadda (two goals in 1998).

But that's for the record.

Saturday En-Nesyri wrote the caption.

© 2022 AFP