Europe 1 with AFP 6:57 p.m., December 10, 2022
The Moroccan Youssef En-Nesyri succeeded where his glorious predecessors, Roger Milla, El-hadji Diouf or Asamoah Gyan failed: to send Africa to the semi-finals of the World Cup, with a header against Portugal who had already entered in history, Saturday.
A goal for history.
It only took one in Morocco against Portugal to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar, this Saturday, December 10.
A goal signed Youssef En-Nesyri 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).
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"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.
"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.
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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.
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.