Raised in Madrid, one of 17 footballers born beyond Morocco's frontiers who help make up this marvellous team, his was the sixth penalty in the shootout. It was also an opportunity to send the Atlas Lions into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time - and eliminate the country where he grew up.
Pressure, what pressure? Hakimi virtually walked up, and dinked gently into the net. The scene was serene, the flight of the ball too but not for long, bedlam taking over. He shuffled a little dance and smiled. In front of him, fans exploded. Behind him, teammates sprinted his way. Together they made for Yassine Bounou, goalkeeper and hero who waited, arms wide. Then they fell to their knees and prayed.
A measure of how big this was came from the media. One journalist took the microphone. "I don't have a question," he told Bounou and the coach Walid Regragui, who has been in the job for little more than three months, "I just wanted to say thanks." Voice-breaking, in tears now, he launched into a long, emotional speech, that ended with applause.
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