Morocco are through to the last 16 of the World Cup — but that only tells half the story.

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A remarkable match was settled by a chaotic penalty shootout which Morocco won 3-2, with five kicks out of 10 missed and only one saved. It extended the Netherlands’ miserable record in shootouts at World Cups: they have only won one of five at the tournament.

It was a breathless finish, but there was huge drama beforehand, too — including perhaps the World Cup’s most emotional moment so far, when the Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo opened the scoring in the 72nd minute.

After doing so, Gakpo sank to his knees and started to sob. He and his partner, Noa van der Bij, are mourning the loss of their baby son during pregnancy and there was no holding back the tears as he climbed to his feet and pointed to the heavens.

But the drama was not over. There was Issa Diop’s stoppage-time equaliser, a remarkable save by Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen in extra time and then the shootout madness.

Here, The Athletic’s writers Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero and Thom Harris discuss the big talking points.

How did chaotic shootout unfold?

The narrative was set as we headed into our second penalty shootout of the day; while one goalkeeper, Bart Verburggen, was in unstoppable form, the other, Yassine Bounou, boasted much stronger spot-kick saving credentials. He stopped two Spanish penalties in the 2022 World Cup last 16, while he prevented two more in the Africa Cup of Nations against Nigeria in January to see his country through to the final.

Well, he had no chance with the first Dutch attempt, as Teun Koopmeiners thumped his spot-kick into the bottom right-hand corner. Neil El Aynaoui then rattled the crossbar, giving Justin Kluivert the chance to put the Netherlands ahead.

It wasn’t to be. He stuttered, waited for Bounou to move, before hitting the base of the left post. It keeps a remarkable statistic going — nine of the last 11 players to be substituted on after the 110th minute in the World Cup or the European Championship have missed their spot-kick in the shootout.

The drama continued, as Rahimi faced up to Verbruggen once again from close range. The goalkeeper made a remarkable save once again, before the ball squirmed underneath his body, spun into his foot, and rolled over the line.

The next two penalties were more conventional, dispatched emphatically by Weghorst and Chemsdine Talbi. 2-2.

But then Quentin Timber smashed the ball wide after a short run up, before Hakimi smashed the exact same part of the post that Kluivert had hit.

After eight penalties, only four had been scored, and there was another miss to come. Summerville blasted the ball down the middle, but Bounou sidestepped to his right and almost causally punched the ball away with his left arm, giving Saibari the chance to win it.

He duly converted, sending Morocco through after what may go down as one of the craziest shootouts in this tournament’s long history.

Why was Gakpo’s goal such an
emotional moment?

There could not have been a more popular scorer for the Netherlands.

When Gakpo appeared in the box to slot home after Crysencio Summerville had been left in a heap in the penalty area, the Liverpool forward was instantly mobbed by his team-mates. He emerged with his face in his shirt and visibly emotional.

The goal had huge significance for the Netherlands, but especially for Gakpo, given what he and Van der Bij have been through following the death of their son. Koeman said there was “never a moment” in which Gakpo had asked to leave the tournament to go back to his family and added that he had dealt with things “in his own way”.

But his celebration was another reminder there are things which are more important than the game — and it was easy to understand the outpouring of emotion. Watching in the stands, his parents were overcome by the moment, too.

It was undoubtedly the most heart-wrenching moment of the World Cup so far.

Did Verbruggen pull off the save of the tournament so far?

It almost didn’t make sense on first viewing. As Soufiane Rahimi chopped inside with a smooth drop of the shoulder, the goal opened up. Our brains have seen that ball nestle in the far corner so many times from that situation, so it was quite the optical illusion when it bobbled wide to the left.

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Bart Verbruggen did incredibly well to narrow the angle as the striker bore down on goal, shifting over slightly to block the usual finish, tempting Rahimi to go for the more unconventional near-post drive. But actually saving the strike from such close range was a different thing altogether, throwing up a knee and somehow diverting a thumped effort onto his outstretched hand and away.

Up until that moment, it had been another quietly accomplished performance from the 23-year-old. He has evolved into one of the best ball-playing goalkeepers for Brighton and Hove Albion, taking on huge responsibility in their risky build-up approach, while he was also among the best shot-stoppers in the Premier League per expected goals on target (xGOT) statistics.

Why was there so much bad blood in the first half?

Jan Paul Van Hecke had quite the night in Monterrey.

Following a crunching tackle on Morocco’s Ismael Saibari after six minutes, the Netherlands defender almost took a boot to the face as the pair tussled for a long ball. They squared up, pushed, and the Dutchman trudged off with a scowl on his face.

Half an hour later, it was Azzedine Ounahi who collided elbow first with Van Hecke. He then fell to the ground in the penalty area, as the studs of Noussair Mazroui inadvertently grazed his head.

It was the most gruesome of Van Hecke’s first-half scrapes, as blood seeped through his bleach-blonde hair, summing up arguably the World Cup’s most physical contest to date.

The first half in particular was a frantic affair in which the ball was constantly up for grabs. Van Hecke was involved in another flying challenge towards the end of the half, while Mazraoui crunched into four tackles in the first 45 minutes alone.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of that opening period was that there were no yellow cards shown by Wilton Sampaio, the referee who sent off three players in the World Cup’s opening game (Mexico vs South Africa).

Did Koeman get
his tactics right?

With Van Hecke, Virgil Van Dijk, Nathan Ake and Micky Van de Ven all in the starting line-up, Dutch manager Ronald Koeman selected four traditional centre-backs, alongside attacking full-back Denzel Dumfries down the right, to switch to a back five for the first time this tournament.

With the pace and direct off-ball running of Achaf Hakimi down the right, Van De Ven was brought into a wing-back role to keep track of him. In a sense, Koeman’s caution was justified when the Tottenham defender steamed back to tackle Hakimi on 55 minutes.

At the same time, the Dutch shape made it difficult for them to apply pressure of their own with the ball. Dumfries was a little hesitant to push on during build-up, and when he did receive the ball high up, he often had to come backwards. Van de Ven was mostly restricted to moments wide on the touchline.

Koeman finally switched things up on 70 minutes, bringing off Ake for the towering Wout Weghorst. It yielded almost instant results, as the former Manchester United man flicked on a clearance into the path of Crysencio Summerville, who squared to Cody Gakpo to score.

They were not thrilling against Japan, nor against Morocco, but Koeman’s side continue to hang on in games and use their bench well — and that is dangerous for the rest of the contenders.

Why were Mexicans cheering Morocco?

It isn’t easy to outsing the Dutch. Usually, Netherlands fans are the ones who set the tone in international tournament games with their infectious ‘Links Rechts’ rhythm.

Here though, Morocco supporters had the beating of their counterparts in the stands — thanks in no small part to some help from the locals. The Mexico faithful have a long memory, judging by the chants of “no era penal” — it wasn’t a penalty — that were being belted out by the sixth minute.

That was a reference to a contentious spot kick given to the Netherlands against Mexico in the 2014 World Cup round of 16, which led to El Tri being eliminated. Mexicans still maintain that was a dive by Arjen Robben rather than a foul by Rafa Marquez, and so they gave their full backing to the North African side here.

Virgil van Dijk had disagreed with a local reporter who suggested Mexicans would want his team to lose. How wrong he was.

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Who do Morocco play next?

Morocco will play Canada in Houston on July 4

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