During the final that was marred by controversy in the closing stages, the Atlas Lions were awarded a penalty with only two minutes of normal added time remaining.
Though Senegal protested the decision, and threatened to abandon the final, they rescinded their boycott threats after being cooled down by Sadio Mane, and allowed Morocco to take the penalty.
Diaz, who was the star player for Morocco from tournament kick-off, through to the group stages, and up until the grand finale, having scored five goals from seven matches, stepped up to take the resultant kick.
However, his attempted Panenka kick was easily saved by Edouard Mendy, taking the final into extra-time. Senegal capitalised on the situation, to score courtesy of Pape Gueye to win the final 1-0 and clinch their second African title, denying Morocco the chance to end their 50-year wait for the crown.
Diaz could have been the hero
“At this level of competition, he can’t do it on purpose. Let’s not talk nonsense,” said the former Morocco captain as quoted by Colinterview. “He could have been the hero, but he wanted to be the superhero. I feel bad for him because it tarnishes his AFCON a bit.
“I thought to myself, ‘He didn’t actually do that, did he?’ I immediately turned around, put my head in my hands, and thought, ‘He didn’t dare do that.’ You can miss a penalty in an AFCON final.
“It’s happened to us (...). It’s part of football. But when he did the Panenka, I said, ‘You can’t do that now.’ I’m smiling about it now, but at the time I wasn’t. It’s the last second.
“You haven’t won an AFCON for 50 years; you haven’t been in the final for 24 years.
“You’re at home. I thought to myself, ‘Go ahead and put a screamer right down the middle. Thank you, goodbye, we lift the trophy, we go home.’ “Everyone is happy and we’ll have a party.”
‘I felt empty at the time’
He continued: “I asked myself, ‘Was he aware of all this, of what was happening on the side?’ From that moment until today, I feel empty. I didn’t cry after that defeat.
“I didn’t have that anger where I lost my temper to externalise something and move on. I felt empty at the time. Since then, it’s been a shock.
“Basically, it’s a bad nightmare, and I’ll wake up tomorrow to either the start of the final or the beginning of the AFCON.”
Diaz later apologised for the missed opportunity on his social media pages: He wrote: “I failed, and I take full responsibility and apologise with all my heart.
“It will be hard for me to recover because this wound does not heal easily, but I will try. Not for myself, but for all who believed in me and for all who suffered with me.”
A few weeks after the AFCON final, Saiss announced his retirement from international football at the age of 34, bringing to an end a career that spanned more than a decade.
Saiss earned 86 caps for Morocco and captained the side during one of the most successful periods in the nation’s football history, including their historic run to the semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar - the first African team to reach that stage of the tournament.
