Morocco have reached the World Cup round of 16 after surviving a penalty shootout against the Netherlands in Monterrey on Monday, in a match that had pretty much everything a late twist, a couple of outstanding saves, and a shootout that went right down to the final kick.

For long stretches it looked like the Dutch were going to be the ones celebrating.

Ronald Koeman shook things up after the hydration break, bringing on Wout Weghorst, and the change worked almost instantly. Weghorst flicked on a long ball into the path of Crysencio Summerville, who broke clear and squared it across for Cody Gakpo. The Liverpool forward threw himself at the ball and found the net, putting the Netherlands ahead with Virgil van Dijk holding things together comfortably at the back.

Morocco, though, weren’t finished. Deep into stoppage time, with the Dutch seemingly seconds from closing out the win, Issa Diop rose above his marker and headed home a dramatic equaliser to force extra time. The momentum had completely flipped, and Morocco almost snatched it there and then Soufiane Rahimi raced through on goal in the 96th minute but was denied by a sharp save from Bart Verbruggen.

Neither side managed a winner after that, so it went to penalties. Morocco’s first kick didn’t go to plan Neil El-Aynaoui’s effort cannoned off the crossbar but goalkeeper Yassine Bounou settled things down with a big save to deny Summerville.

That left the door open for Ismael Saibari, who kept his composure and fired home the decisive penalty to send Morocco through 3-2 on spot-kicks.

It was a tense, physical game from the first whistle, with both sides going into challenges hard enough to keep referee Wilton Sampaio busy.

Morocco probably shaded the chances in normal time El-Aynaoui glanced a header off an Achraf Hakimi corner that Verbruggen tipped over, and the Dutch keeper had to be alert again soon after to keep out a powerful strike from Hakimi. The Netherlands had their moments too, with Micky van de Ven forcing a good save out of Bounou from the edge of the box just before the break.

Morocco’s reward is a last-16 meeting with Canada in Houston on Saturday.