Due to the tense atmosphere at the Africa Cup of Nations final held at the Rabat Stadium on Sunday night, the post-match press conference originally scheduled for Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw was ultimately cancelled.
Nonetheless, the architect of the new African champions explained to Reporter why he ordered his entire team off the pitch after the referee awarded Morocco a penalty for a slight foul by Diouf on Díaz in stoppage time.
"We really struggled to reach a consensus... I don’t want to go over the details of the game again, because in hindsight, I completely disagree with having to tell my players to leave the pitch," he said before giving his explanation.
"I apologise to the football world," he continued, assuring that it was just a "spur-of-the-moment" reaction, as "one can’t help but wonder if the penalty was really warranted, and if a previous goal had been wrongly disallowed."
After finally reflecting on his actions, Thiaw told his players to return to the pitch, and the rest is history.
"We should not have done that," he concluded. "We accept the referee’s mistake; these things happen from time to time."
