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The north African country has been a powerful force on the continent's football stage for more than a decade, regularly winning competitions at all levels and becoming a hub with powerful political and financial influence.

But while its ascendancy has been evident in all sectors of Africa's most popular sport, its one weak spot has been at AFCON, where it has been heavily fancied in recent editions but flopped.

“It’s a unique moment for us,” captain Achraf Hakimi said after Morocco's semi-final success in midweek against Nigeria, which came courtesy of a penalty shootout after a stalemate over 120 minutes of open play.

“We’ve made history once again, this team deserves it. All Moroccans deserve it. We are very happy, but we haven’t finished the job yet.”

Morocco will be hoping to finally reap rewards for its considerable investment, in players and facilities, some of which were recently upgraded and will be used when it co-hosts the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Portugal and Spain.

However, Senegal has the potential to be party poopers with a formidable squad that has lost only one of its past 34 internationals, and that was to Brazil in London two months ago.

How it copes with the pressure, especially as it has largely sauntered through its six matches, will be key but its coach Pape Bouna Thiaw said: "We wanted to play in this final, now we have to go and win it."

Monday's (AEDT) clash in Rabat is its third final appearance in the past four editions and it will have many key players with experience in its line-up, not least talisman Sadio Mane, who scored the winner in its 1-0 semi-final victory against Egypt.

Morocco has enjoyed the No.1 ranking on the continent since becoming the first African country to reach the FIFA World Cup semi-finals, at Qatar 2022, and last year it broke the record for the most successive wins by a national team, before stretching it to 19 with more wins at this tournament.

But the country has previously won the African crown just once in 1976 and only appeared in one final since (2004) and that seemed to weigh heavily as it made a tentative start to the tournament last month.

It looked to have rid itself of those nervy shackles, however, in its past two matches against Cameroon and Nigeria with an impressively aggressive and fast approach to the game.

It will also have enthusiastic support from the majority of the crowd at Stade Moulay Abdellah, with the country swept up in footballing fervour.