Morocco players celebrate after the their FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group F win against Belgium at the Al Thumama Stadium, Doha, Qatar, on November 27, 2022. REUTERS/Matthew Childs
Doha: Morocco shocked Belgium with a monumental 2-0 win at Al Thumama Stadium yesterday to ensure that they can still qualify for the knockout stage of the Word Cup for the second time in their history.
The Atlas Lions struck twice late through Romain Saiss and Zakaria Aboukhlal as they clinched their first win in a World Cup match since 1998 – and third ever - in front of an army of supporters clad in red.
“We can still be better,” a jubilant Morocco coach Walid Regragui said after the game.
“I’m not happy with four points, I want more than that. I want to qualify,” the former Al Duhail coach said.
Abdelhamid Sabiri curled in a free-kick from the left wing as the ball was deflected off Saiss for their first goal in the 73rd minute, leaving the Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois and his fellow teammates stunned, before Aboukhlal struck in the second minute of stoppage time to send shockwaves around the football world.
Belgium, the world’s second-ranked side, will now have to beat Croatia who scored an easy 4-1 win over Canada - to secure a place in the last 16. However, they will be without Amadou Onana who received a yellow card in the 28th minute, which was his second of the tournament, meaning he will miss Belgium’s next game.
“We haven’t been the best Belgium at this World Cup yet,” Belgian coach Roberto Martinez admitted. “Today I thought we played with the fear of losing. Without the ball we still work for each other but when we have the ball, we don’t stand out, we are not ourselves. We have to work on that.
“We have to stay together now and become stronger. I know this group, we will be ready for Croatia,” the 49-year-old said.
Martinez noted that the team is still an organized unit.
“We didn’t take advantage of our good moments in the first half and that first goal from Morocco determined the rest of the game,” he said.
“We have been defending those standard situations in the same way for six years. If the ball is kicked well, those are very difficult balls for a keeper,” Martinez said, referring to the first Moroccan goal.
“After the goal, the game changed radically and we were not careful enough with the ball to hurt Morocco.”
Morocco’s victory put them above Belgium with four points, same as Croatia. Still it’s a three way-battle for the knockout round, with Canada being eliminated following their defeat against the 2018 runners-up.
Both teams missed a number of scoring opportunities in most part of yesterday’s game which looked like it was anybody’s game until the final stretch.
Belgium were desperately looking for an equalizer and brought in their star striker Romelu Lukaku – who missed the opening game while recovering from an injury. However the Inter Milan talisman was unable to make an impact as the Belgians were handed another blow by Aboukhlal.
The game looked fast paced in the first 15 minutes, with both teams creating a number of scoring opportunities. Morocco were denied a goal just before the halftime break for offside when Hakim Ziyech’s free-kick ended up in the back of the net.
Belgium were denied one when El Kajoui made a brilliant save off a shot from Michy Batshuayi.
Kevin De Bruyne found Thomas Meunier wide open on another occasion, but the latter failed to beat the Moroccan custodian Munir El Kajoui who replaced Yassine Bounou, who looked to be unwell, just before the kick-off.
