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Thriller all the way; Spain get the pains!

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Morocco’s Yassine Bounou saves Spain’s Sergio Busquets’ spot-kick
Education Stadium, Doha, State of Qatar

After a pulsating 134 minutes that included additional time at both halves of the regulation time as well as the two halves of the extra time, Morocco, the sole African side standing remain standing as they outshut hot favourites, Spain by 3-0 in the ensuing penalty shootout after a goalless draw.

Poor Spain! They obviously had the greater share of control of the game, but the Moroccans absorbed the pressure and dragged the game into extra time. Obviously, Spain got more than they bargained for as they must have assumed they were going to win the duel and possibly never thought of possible penalty shootout.

And the poor image of Japan, losing all their three kicks from an ensuing panalty shootout resurfaced.

 Spanish-born Achraf Hakimi scored the decisive spot-kick for Morocco, leaving his country of birth squandering all three of their attempts.

Hakimi, a product of the Real Madrid youth system, calmly slotted his penalty past Unai Simon in Spain’s goal to seal Morocco’s 3-0 win in the shootout.

Morocco advanced to a quarter-final clash with either Portugal or Switzerland who meet later on Tuesday.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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