Patient Morocco beat co-hosts Canada to set up quarterfinal against France

HOUSTON: The end result was as expected, but for 45 minutes the performance was not. After a quintessential game of two halves, Morocco became the first African team in history to twice reach the World Cup quarterfinals, yet it was not the easy game against Canada that many fans anticipated. When the final whistle went, two-goal hero Azzedine Ounahi said he “felt like crying” after helping to give his country the celebrations its people were expecting. 

Heading into Houston Stadium, the Moroccan fans were confident their place in the last-eight was all but assured. Ranked No7 in the world — 23 places higher than their North American opponents — and with the experience of four years ago when they reached the semi-finals in Qatar, fans wearing fezzes and draped in the red and green flag of their nation spoke of a “comfortable” win and “two or three nil”.

In the end it was indeed 3-0, but for the first half at least, comfortable it was not. In fact, Canada coach Jesse Marsch’s pre-match declaration that Morocco have “zero weaknesses” looked like a bluff as his Canada side showed enough determination, ambition, and speed of attack to rattle the African champions. Jonathan David, Tani Oluwaseyi, and Alistair Johnston all missed early chances, while Morocco offered little.

The Atlas Lions looked neutered for much of the first half, managing just one touch in the opposition box. Ounahi, however, showed shortly after half-time that true predators do not need to get close to kill, with his goal from distance changing the shape of the game. 

“These days, there are no easy teams anymore,” said Ounahi, who added a second before Al-Ain’s Sofiane Rahimi wrapped it up in added time.

“People say, ‘Morocco will go through easily;