Morocco edge Netherlands on pens in a mad one

The officials let the game become a stop start mess and it only added to the tension because every little thing felt dragged out and every restart killed any flow that either side might have found and then by the time it got to penalties the whole thing had been turned into a pressure cooker where nobody looked comfortable and I am not saying the ref decided it because that would be lazy but he absolutely helped create the kind of ugly atmosphere where one team could just sit deep and wait and the other team could get more and more frustrated and then everyone acts shocked when the shootout is a complete shambles and the players are twitching and second guessing themselves and it all becomes about who can survive the nonsense rather than who can play football properly and the answer tonight was Morocco and the Netherlands should be embarrassed about how little control they had but the officials made the whole thing feel ten times more chaotic than it needed to be
 
the dutch were playing like they had a bus to catch and morocco were loving every second of it, absolute banter when the pens started because you just knew something stupid was coming and then it kept getting stupider and stupider
 
The Netherlands lacked control for long stretches and that caught up with them. Morocco were not spectacular, but they were more organised and more willing to embrace the tension. That usually matters more than flair in a game like this.
 
i was half expecting the shootout to end in a draw or something because every pen felt cursed and then when it finally finished i just sat there staring at the screen like what did i just watch
 
the dutch looked scared from the start and once it got to pens there was only one outcome really morocco were never flashy but they stayed calm and that was enough
 
If you strip away the noise, this came down to one side showing more conviction than the other. The Netherlands had moments where they could have taken control but never really did, and Morocco stayed organised, patient, and mentally stronger when it mattered. That is why the result feels deserved, even if the football itself was messy. But honestly the whole thing turned into a complete farce by the end because the pens were so bad and the tension was so high and the Dutch just kept making it worse for themselves and you could almost feel the panic through the screen and that is what will sting for them, not just losing, but losing like that, in that way, with everyone watching them fold
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top