Diop leads Morocco past Netherlands on penalties in World Cup upset

Issa Diop turned a match Morocco seemed to be losing into a signature result, equalizing in the 90+1 minute and helping send the team to a 3-2 penalty shootout win over the Netherlands at Monterrey Stadium in Guadalupe, Mexico. The 1-1 draw after 120 minutes carried Morocco into the Round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup and gave the North African side another result built less on luck than on refusal, structure and calm under pressure.

Cody Gakpo had put the Netherlands ahead in the 72nd minute, and for much of the second half the three-time World Cup runners-up looked set to extend a record of always reaching at least the Round of 16 in their previous 11 tournaments. Instead, Morocco kept its shape, kept its belief and found one final opening in stoppage time, when Diop finished the equalizer that changed the mood of the stadium and the path of the tie.

The shootout finished Morocco 3, Netherlands 2, with Yassine Bounou delivering the decisive stop that pushed Morocco through. The result fit a team that had already shown on the biggest stage that it could absorb pressure and keep playing its own game. In Qatar 2022, Morocco became the first African side to reach a World Cup semifinal, and this performance again showed a side that can survive long stretches without the ball, then punish a single lapse.

That resilience mattered even more against an opponent making its earliest World Cup exit in history. The Dutch had never fallen before the Round of 16, but Morocco dragged them into a match defined by one late action, one composed goalkeeper and one shootout that swung the tournament’s balance.

The emotional weight was there too. Gakpo, the man who opened the scoring for the Netherlands, had announced two days earlier the loss of his unborn son. Even with that backdrop, the match was decided by Morocco’s collective response in the final minutes and in the penalty area, where Diop, Bounou and a steady group of teammates turned a near defeat into a place among the last 16.