The 2022 World Cup has seen quite the brilliant end to a cracking quarterfinal stage. With this being the last day with more than one match, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one moment that defined the day's action.
For day 18, we pick a moment that stood out in its pure spontaneity, a moment that told the story of one of the great World Cup quarterfinals: Jawad El Yamiq's kiss on Pepe's head.
We're six minutes and thirty seven seconds into added time at the end of ninety. The score reads, incredibly, Morocco 1 - Portugal 0. Rafael Leao has the ball at his feet deep on the left flank, Achraf Hakimi tight to him. Standing at the edge of the six-yard box are Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe. If Fernando Santos had handpicked two people to be there at this stage of the game, it'd have been those two. Leao has had no change off Hakimi since his introduction nearly half an hour ago, but this time he gets half a yard. A quick shift onto his right and the ball's zipping across the air, into that corridor of uncertainty between defenders and goalkeeper.
At this stage, Morocco have four people on the two great Portuguese superstars. Two of them are centre-backs Jawad El Yamiq and (substitute) Achraf Dari. The other two are central midfielder Sofiyan Amrabat and left back Yahia Attiyat Allah. The three defenders are only playing because of injuries to the starters, one of them in this game (captain Romain Saiss).
In professional life, the three play for Real Valladolid, Brest and Wydad Casablanca. They've had no right to keep one of the great attacking units of world football at arm's length but that's exactly what they and their mates ahead of them have done, so far. Amrabat is there because that's what he does: he has been everywhere this World Cup, and so has his midfield partner Azzedine Ounahi (keeping an eye on Ricardo Horta at the near post in this move).
Their goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, Bono, has been sensational. Today, though, he has pulled off a couple of good saves and that's about it. Collectively, and individually, the outfielders have not put a foot wrong, they've not let Portugal trouble Bono at all. Not even when defending with a man less for the last three minutes.
Leao's cross comes in, and it's perfect. El Yamiq can only watch as Ronaldo, the greatest goalscorer of our times, leaps high and misses it by an inch. Amrabat can do nothing as the ball whooshes over his head. Attiyat Allah can do even less as Pepe muscles his way past him, into the six-yard box and connects with it flush on his forehead.
You could almost feel their hearts stop, simultaneously.
This really should have been it -- Pepe doesn't miss these kind of chances, he's way too clutch for that. If this goes in, they might as well hand the match to Portugal... Morocco were physically, psychologically, mentally spent. After every clearance, every block, they had been falling to the floor, limp and drained. Every time they had gotten back up and asked for more. This was going to be so cruel.
Pepe connects... and smashes it wide, the ball almost screaming as it smacks straight into the advertising boards past the far post. As he walks across the face of the goal, hands on his head, not quiet believing what has happened, El Yamiq wanders over to him and plants a kiss square on that bald noggin.
A Morocco player kissed Pepe on the head after he missed his chance for a late equalizer ������ pic.twitter.com/UBRKOiJMIC
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 10, 2022
As a singular moment it's... pure, so unscripted.
In context, it's the story of this World Cup, the story of Morocco's run. It is relief and elation and just that touch of comical shithousery. It's an almost subconscious release of emotion, pent up after the rollercoaster it's been on for 97 minutes. It's the acknowledgement that for a second there, Morocco's fate wasn't in their hands. Ronaldo missing the ball, Pepe missing the target... this was one of those moments where El Yamiq knew that sometimes you just need some plain, old-fashioned luck to be on your side. And he just wanted to show his gratitude.
They had been brilliant on the day as they have been for quite a few days now (Walid Regragui is yet to concede a goal scored by an opposition player as Morocco head coach). They had taken a deserved lead thanks to Youssef En-Nesyri's Ronaldo-esque leap. They had easily had the better chances - their best (spurned by Zakaria Aboukhlal) coming just a minute before Leao swung his cross in. But the worry had always been there. Portugal are Portugal -- even if Morocco did everything right, as they had, all it would require was a moment of genius, a burst of brilliance from someone like a Ronaldo or a Bruno Fernandes or, in this case, a Leao to undo all their good work.
"The goal gaped. Morocco held its breath," Peter Drury had said on commentary, his tone mirroring the weight of emotion felt by El Yamiq and Pepe and everyone else invested in the moment. For 97 minutes they had defended everything that Portugal had thrown at them. In that one second, they had needed the kind of fortune people say favours only the bold. And they had got it. Pure theatre.
In that kiss lay the story of this drama: of Morocco's bravery and joy, of Portugal's disbelief and shock, of the sheer history-making magnitude of it all.