Meet Yassine Bounou: The man who blocked Spain out of the FIFA World Cup | Football News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Eight or nine out of ten times, footballers are expected to score from the spot or via penalty kicks. But history has it that even some of the greatest players of all time have missed spot kicks.
At the FIFA World Cup, some of the missed penalty kicks have become part of folklore. Who can forget Michel Plaitini’s miss vs Brazil in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals or the most infamous of them all – Roberto Baggio’s miss vs Brazil in the 1994 World Cup final.
Sometimes shots are wayward, and sometimes the shots are stopped by goalkeepers.

So high is the scoring percentage from penalties that no blame is put on goalkeepers if the goal is scored but if the goalkeepers stop any of the penalties, they are regarded as heroes.
Now think of Yassine Bounou who stopped not one but two penalty kicks as Morocco stunned Spain in a penalty shootout to reach the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history.
After 120 minutes without a goal at Education City Stadium (regulation time+ extra time), Spain failed to score a single spot kick as Bounou saved two and Pablo Sarabia hit the post.

Bounou, who is nicknamed ‘Bono’ blocked shots from Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets and that left Achraf Hakimi to settle the tie with a nerveless kick to drive the predominantly Moroccan crowd in the stadium wild.
Morocco are just the fourth African team to reach the last eight of a World Cup after Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.
Spain, the 2010 World Cup winners, failed to break down the athletic Moroccan side, with Bounou making a fine save from Dani Olmo‘s free-kick in one of the best chances of regulation time.

Born in Montreal, Canada, the 6’4″ tall Bounou moved to Morocco at an early age, and is now playing in his third FIFA World Cup. The tall keeper also played for the Morocco under-23 team at the 2012 Olympics.
At the club level, Bounou plays for Sevilla in Spain and won the UEFA Europa League in 2020 with the Spanish club, who beat Inter Milan 3-2 in the final.

Morocco’s quarterfinal opponent on Saturday will be Portugal. Both teams are eyeing their maiden World Cup title, but the Moroccoans have already made World Cup history. And they have a certain Yassine Bounou to thank for that.
Just how big his contribution was in Morocco’s win vs Spain was evident from the celebrations that followed the winning kick. Moroccan players piled onto Bounou, congratulating him for a long time after the match got over.
He will now be trying to get himself ready for the Portuguese challenge. That quarter-final match kicks-off at 8:30PM IST on Saturday, December 10.