Morocco beat Canada 2-1 to advance to second World Cup round of 16
Posted Date – 11:34 PM, Thursday – 12/1/22
Photo: AFP
Doha: Morocco advanced to the last 16 of the World Cup for the second time after beating Canada 2-1 on Thursday.
The win means it finishes top of Group F ahead of 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia and semi-finalists Belgium. Second-placed Croatia and second-placed Belgium were unexpectedly out after a 0-0 draw.
The only time Morocco made it past the group stage was in 1986. Hakim Ziyech scored for Morocco in the fourth minute when Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan shot home from the left winger.
Youssef En-Nesyri scored another goal in the 23rd inning. Back then it looked like Morocco would crush the Canadians. But Nayef Aguerd’s own goal before half-time made it 2-1 and gave Canada enough to put the pressure on Morocco in search of an equalizer for much of the second half.
Captain Atiba Hutchinson, who came on as a second-half substitute, bounced off the crossbar and onto the goal line to give Canada a narrow victory.
Canada will host the next World Cup in 2026 with the United States and Mexico, but was eliminated ahead of the match against Morocco. It ended up losing all three matches in Qatar, matching the three defeats in its only World Cup appearance in 1986.
Long before the final whistle, Morocco’s players were bouncing around the dugout as coach Walid Regragui smiled broadly and gestured with his arms for them to continue celebrating.
Morocco have dispelled doubts that appointing Regraghi less than three months before the World Cup would ruin its chances of reaching the last 16. Morocco started with a encouraging draw against Croatia before beating Belgium 2-0 in arguably the best result in international football.
Morocco have now won as many games in this World Cup as they have played in all previous World Cups combined, and are expected to have their best performance in the competition. The North African nation’s only major international football title came at the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations.
A poor error by Canada allowed Morocco to open the scoring at the Al Thumama Stadium when Steven Victoria’s return put pressure on goalkeeper Borjan.
But instead of clearing the frontcourt, Boljan inexplicably slid the ball slightly sideways in Ziyech’s direction, and Ziyech flicked it back to Boljan for the first time and into the unguarded goal. .
