Everton star Idrissa Gana Gueye has revealed behind the scenes details of Senegal’s walk off in the African Cup of Nations final.
Onze Mondial have an interview with the Everton midfielder this week. He discusses their decision to protest in the eventual win over Morocco.
Last month’s AFCON final conclude in unprecedented chaos as Senegal eventually defeated hosts Morocco 1-0 in extra time. Pape Gueye scored the winning goal in the 94th minute, but that was far from being the defining moment.
Instead that was a 17-minute second-half stoppage, followed by a catastrophic penalty miss by Morocco’s Brahim Diaz.
Senegal though they had won the game when Ismaïla Sarr scored from close range, but referee Jean-Jacques Ndala controversially disallowed it for a foul in the build-up.
He then awarded Morocco a penalty minutes later following a VAR review. Enraged by the perceived injustice, Senegal coach Pape Thiaw ordered his players to leave the pitch.
A 17-minute break followed as Sadio Mané refused to leave, trying to convince his teammates to return and finish the match. He eventually succeeded, with his side then watching as Diaz missed the penalty following an attempted Panenka.
Everton’s Idrissa Gana Gueye was in the centre of the madness, with the 36-year-old one of the leaders of the team. He’s now revealed the inside details from the dressing room.
“In fact, throughout the match, there were a lot of little things. The referee was calling everything against us,” he said.
“We knew we shouldn’t dwell on it and that the only person who should talk to him was me, because I was captain for this match. So, I often went to talk to him calmly, laughing, smiling, chatting with him, trying to understand, trying to lighten the mood as much as possible.
“And frankly, it spoiled the match a bit. Because the match itself was good. And then, well, what happened, happened. He called a foul against us, then he awarded them a penalty. And then all hell broke loose—36 players everywhere.
“We were wondering, “Do we play or not?” There was shouting, pushing and shoving. The match stopped for a while. Everything that happened was in the spirit of competition. We didn’t understand what was going on, and we wanted to win. For us, it was the last straw. We talked with Sadio Mané; he went to speak with some of the older players and came back.
“We spoke with the coach, and then Sadio said, “Let’s go back and play.” The coach replied, “It’s true the situation is complicated, but we have to come back, we have to play, it’s not a big deal.” And then we started laughing amongst ourselves, saying, “Besides, he hasn’t even scored yet.” And we kept laughing.”