Morocco coach Jorge Vilda blames VAR penalty call for WAFCON final defeat to Nigeria

Morocco head coach Jorge Vilda made no secret of his unhappiness with the referees’ decision-making during Saturday’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final, with two notable penalty decision going against the tournament hosts as they fell 3-2 to the Super Falcons.

Despite taking a 2-0 lead inside the first 25 minutes, the Atlas Lionesses were unable to hold off a stunning second-half comeback from the Super Falcons, with Nigeria ultimately clinching their 10th continental crown via Jennifer Echegini’s 88th-minute winner from close range.

The Falcons’ comeback hinged on two decisive VAR calls, with one penalty awarded to them for Nouhaila Benzina’s 62nd-minute handball, before a Morocco penalty after the ball struck Oluwatosin Demehin’s arm taken away from the tournament hosts, following intervention from the Video Assistant Referee.

The officials’ performance was the focus of Morocco coach Vilda’s ire after the match.

“We can’t understand the decision made by the referee,” he told ESPN, “she gave a penalty, but then the images we saw were not the same as those presented to the referee.

“The images were clear, we were sure, she had to give a penalty,” he continued. “There was a penalty that should have been, the referee had blown for it, but then [went] to VAR.

“We saw there was a hand, but the referee took it off us. That’s what determined that we weren’t able to celebrate this match – the penalty that was taken away from us.”

While the replays clearly showed Imane Saoud’s close-range shot, as Nigeria failed to clear their lines from a corner, striking Demehin’s arm, the proximity of the players as well as the fact the Nigeria defender’s arm was down against her body in a natural position prompted VAR to advise referee Antsino Twanyanyukwa to overturn her on-field call.

After consulting the screen, the Namibian official changed her mind and denied the Moroccan penalty, deflating the capacity overwhelmingly-pro-Lionesses crowd in attendance at the Olympic Stadium.

At that point, with Nigeria having retrieved the scoreline to 2-2 after Esther Okoronkwo’s penalty and Folashade Ijamilusi’s close-range finish had cancelled out opening goals from Ghizlane Chebbak and Sanaa Mssoudy, a Morocco penalty with only 12 minutes to play may well have proved fatal for the Falcons’ WAFCON ambitions.

“The fact it wasn’t given as a penalty had an immediate impact on the players,” Vilda continued. “It had a psychological impact that shocked us, it was a massive hit to the players.

“It made it hard for us to come back [than had it been given], the match was harder after this. It’s true that we regressed, but we had to make more effort.

“Football was hard towards our team.”

Morocco’s players largely stood behind their coach’s words, with several from the squad – including influential Ibtissam Jraïdi – posting a replay of the incident on her social media in the aftermath of the final.

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While ostensibly appearing to agree with VAR’s decision to award a Nigerian penalty for Benzina’s handball, when she innocuously turned into an Ijamilusi cross, with the ball striking her left arm, raised as she jumped, Vilda did acknowledge that the Lionesses should have cut out the lapses that allowed their opponents in.

“We should have managed better the second-half,” he added. “We should have done it better, but no one could have predicted what could have happened.

“I don’t think Morocco delivered a poorer performance than Nigeria, and we weren’t weaker than the other opponents we faced,” the Spaniard concluded.

“Our performance was exceptional, even during the final, apart from a few minutes, apart from the referee, we were better than Nigeria.

“It’s sad, it’s hard, it’s painful, but the performance overall has made us proud.”

Speaking to ESPN after the match, Nigeria defender Ashleigh Plumptre disagreed with Vilda’s claim that it would have been Morocco celebrating had the Demehin handball had led to a penalty.

“When I was stood there, let’s say they’d had it, I didn’t think we’d lost,” she began, “because I know Chiamaka [Nnadozie] is very good at penalties, so I’m preparing myself to go and follow it in.

“If they had scored, I still had this belief that we’d find a way,” Plumptre continued. “Obviously it didn’t happen, thank goodness, but I was thinking, at that point, ‘Oh God, we’ve got to go and do it again’.

“It’s hard, when you’ve got two back and then they score, hard from a momentum shift point of view, but I’m just happy that it didn’t get awarded in the end.”

VAR made several decisive interventions at the WAFCON, notably awarding Morocco a controversial penalty in their 1-0 victory over Senegal, which ultimately ensured their progression from Group A as group winners, while also denying South Africa a penalty against the Teranga Lionesses in their quarterfinal after Hildah Magaia had been brought down in the box.