Achraf Hakimi showed off his free-kick skills with Morocco in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. However, at Paris Saint-Germain, he did not get a set-piece.
Morocco was able to beat Malawi 2-1 at Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium, Yaounde, Cameroon in the round of 16 of the 2021 African Cup of Nations, Wednesday (26/1/2022) early morning WIB. Morocco had fallen behind first due to a goal from Gabadinho Mhango in the 7th minute.
The Lions of Atlas could equalize from Youssef En-Nesyri’s score in the final minutes of the first half. Hakimi then emerged as the hero of Morocco’s victory thanks to his goal in the 70th minute.
The Paris Saint-Germain full-back’s goal came from a beautiful free kick from the right side of the Malawi defence. This is not the first time Hakimi’s deadly free kick has scored a goal at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Previously, Hakimi also scored from almost the same way and position when Morocco drew 2-2 with Gabon in the last match of the group stage. This 23-year-old player cannot judge which is more beautiful than his goal against Malawi or Gabon.
However, he insists his goals against Malawi and Gabon are among the best goals of his career. Hakimi also revealed his ability to execute fruit balls from the hard training he did.
“The goal against Gabon was beautiful, the best of my career, but today I was lucky too, with one more goal. I don’t know which is more beautiful, I need to see it again, but both are difficult to score from that angle.” Achraf Hakimi quoted from ESPN.
“Sometimes I do this kind of thing in training, and it works – I can do it really well – so I’m happy when I can make a shot like this in a game after working hard,” he explained.
Even so, Hakimi did not have many opportunities to show off his ability to execute set pieces while defending PSG. This is because Lionel Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe are the main executor of Les Parisiens’ free kicks. He will ask for a ‘ration’ of free kicks when he returns to Paris.
“In Paris, we have a lot of players who can take free-kicks. There’s Messi, Neymar, Mbappe, I tried, but it’s difficult. I’ll talk to them when I return to Paris. Right now I’m focused on the national team, but after that , we will see what happens in Paris,” Hakimi added.
(pur/krs)
