Netherlands 1-1 Morocco (Morocco win 3-2 on penalties): – live reaction

A patient first five minutes turned into a fiesty next 40 in Morocco. The Atlas Lions had the better chances before and after the hydration break, and they’ll be rueing Saibari’s miss of the ball on Hakimi’s free kick in stoppage time.

Eleven fouls, one bloodied Dutch defender and a partridge in a pear tree through the first half, but no yellow cards from referee Wilton Sampaio yet. To the half-time break we go!

45 + 6 min The Dutch ever nearly get one of their own on the final play of the half, but the whistle blows.

45 + 5 min Hakimi’s free kick very nearly finds Saibari, but the ball gets is level with his hip instead of his foot and goes wide as Saibari goes flying into the back of the net.

45 + 5 min Hakimi is slow to get up running in to Van De Ven. I, for one, am surprised we are still without a yellow.

45 + 3 min Hectic sequence. Soon after Saibari was left waiting wide open for a ball that went long, Van Hecke puts in a crunching tackle to stop El Aynaoui’s run.

45 + 2 min I’m impressed that Van Hecke is still out there after how bloodied he got taking that cleat to the head. Nonzero chance he comes out for the second half with the Daniëlle-van-de-Donk-at-the-2023-World-Cup swim cap special.

45 min + 1 Six minutes of stoppage time.

45 min The Dutch get their fourth corner of the night, but Brobbey is whistled for a foul for contact with the goalkeeper as the ball comes in. Look familiar, any Germany v Paraguay viewers?

44 min Van de Ven launches a strike from distance that nearly put the Netherlands ahead, but Bounou gets one hand on it to push it above the crossbar and keep the scoreline even.

42 min Van Hecke is back on the field for the Dutch.

40 min Pause in play to as a very bloodied Van Hecke receives medical treatment. He’s taken several hits tonight. He jogs off the field and the Dutch will play with 10 for now.

37 min The Dutch win their second corner. Dumfries gets a head on Summerville’s ball in, but it skies out for another corner. On the second attempt, Van Hecke goes for the header and catches an accidental Morocco cleat on the way down. It seems to have produced a gnarly-seeming cut with a gnarly amount of blood.

36 min A very quick pause for a video check to see what would have been a very soft handball call on Bouaddi. Check complete, no call, play resumes.

35 min Summerville gets the ball in the box from Dumfries, but gets caught in a scramble before he can get a shot off.

33 min Maybe it’s the whistles in the crowd, maybe it’s the whistles on the field (eight fouls now!), but I tend to agree with Tracy that it feels we could see someone sent off in this game. We’ll see how her prediction shapes out.

31 min Saibari makes an enticing move into the box after receiving a cross-field long ball, but he runs straight into Summerville.

31 min From our Jeff Rueter on BlueSky: “Hate that I’m sitting here with thoughts like ‘such a bailout that the Netherlands made it to the hydration break’ and ‘Morocco really must be kicking themselves for not scoring before the drinks.’” The 2026 World Cup!

28 min Ounahi stats a sequence with a beautiful nutmeg of Dumfries to reach El Khannouss, who sends a lovely cross in, but there’s no one there to get a touch on it.

27 min Van Hecke goes down after taking an elbow to the chin in a late mid-air challenge from Ounahi. No card, it appears, however much the Dutch wanted one.

25 min A key part of the Dutch wins in the group stage was midfielder Frenkie de Jong. Our Barney Ronay called him “a footballer who always seems to be played inside his own demilitarised zone”. They’ll want to see him more involved for the rest of this half beyond the 16 touches he has now.

Some emails during the break:

• “I’d bet real American dollars that we see at least one red card tonight. Both teams are excessively zesty so far.” Tracy

• “If Riad runs out of kit, do they switch him into a spray-on jersey?” Sandgk

23 min Hydration break! And the Netherlands will be happy it came when it did. Verbuggen was forced into action for two big saves in the span of a few minutes as Morocco challenged in the box.

21 min Active few minutes for Morocco. They followed the Verbuggen save with a shot that skied high. Seconds later, Hakimi got another chance from the top of the box that forced Verbuggen into another stop.

20 min Morocco win their first corner of the game and Hakimi takes it. Verbuggen makes a strong save on an El Aynaoui header.

17 min The US broadcast reports that Morocco’s Chadi Riad is on his third (third!) jersey of the game because it has been ripped so many times. Thoughts to the Morocco equipment managers.

16 min The Dutch had their first threatening chance waved offside. Summerville got a long ball down the side and took it into the box before trying to lay it off for Brobbey, but a Moroccan defender got a foot on it first and skied it high.

15 min This feels a bit like Morocco’s opening stretch against Brazil in the way they’ve been allowed to attack on the right side.

13 min Lots of whistles so far. Brobbey went down after vying for a ball with Diop but hopped back up. Pretty split possession-wise through the opening 13 minutes.

11 min Saibari gets the ball in the box for Morocco’s first threatening chance of the night, but pulls down Dumfries on his run and gets whistled for a foul.

8 min Plenty of crunching tackles early. Van Hecke and Saibari are sparring after both went for a header.