Morocco reached the round of 16 in the Qatar World Cup 2022, Thursday, after its deserved victory over Canada, with two goals to one, in the final round of Group F competitions.
The “Atlas Lions” carried the hopes of millions of Moroccan fans and entered the meeting with great determination, imposing offensive control that forced the Canadians to retreat and defend from the first minutes.
The Moroccan weddings started early with a beautiful first goal, scored by the brilliant Hakim Ziyech, less than 4 minutes from the start, taking advantage of a ball that he got from a wrong distraction by the Canadian goalkeeper, who followed it brilliantly into the net from a distance of 32 meters.
The Moroccan advantage resulted in a second goal in the 23rd minute, following a very perfect pass presented by Ashraf Hakimi to Youssef Al-Nusairi, who shot it to the left of the goalkeeper, making history as the first Moroccan to score in two consecutive editions of the World Cup.
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And one of the few chances that the Canadian team had, Moroccan defender Nayef Akrad narrowed the difference in the 40th minute with a ball that he accidentally converted into his country’s goal.
Al-Nusairi visited the Canadian net on a third occasion, with a white goal that was ruled out by the referee for offside in the second minute of the counted time, instead of lost for the time of the first half.
In the second half, the Canadian national team rushed into the attack, free from all pressure, after it was eliminated from the qualification accounts, and threatened Yassin Bono’s goal with dangerous attempts, most notably the header of substitute Atiba Hutchinson, which was returned by the crossbar in the 71st minute.
The Canadians’ chances did not bring anything new, and the match ended with a Moroccan victory, which coincided with Croatia’s goalless draw with Belgium in another match that took place at the same time.
Morocco topped the group standings with 7 points, Croatia second with five points and also qualified for the same round, while Belgium came third with 4 points, and finally Canada without any points.
Morocco’s access to the second round occurs for the second time in the history of the world championship, as it had previously achieved this achievement in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico as the first Arab team to reach this role, before Algeria could repeat the achievement after 28 years in Brazil 2014.
