News

Canada 1-2 Morocco: Match report, player ratings, expert analysis, fan reaction and more

All the reaction as Morocco booked their spot in the Last-16 with table-topping status


An at-times chaotic 90 minutes at the Al-Thumama Stadium on Thursday evening ultimately saw Morocco get the better of a plucky Canada outfit, by two goals to one.

Morocco needed just a point to ensure qualification, but were gifted an opening goal after four minutes when goalkeeper Milan Borjan took a heavy touch and allowed Hakim Ziyech to lift into an empty net from 30 yards out.

Midway through the first half, they doubled their lead against a shambolic Canada side, with Youssef En Nesyri running behind the Canadian defence to fire home his first goal of the tournament.

Canada halved that deficit five minutes from half time, however, when a cross from the left hand side was turned into his own net by a stretching Nayef Aguerd, taking the record of both the 100th goal of the tournament and the first own goal so far, and handing Canada a potential lifeline back into the game.

The African side thought that they had restored their two goal advantage when En-Nesyri fired home for a free kick, but VAR ruled it out for a perceived offside, leaving Canada trailing by just one heading into the interval.

And so we headed into the 2nd-half amid tense scenes in Al Thumuma, with Morocco eyeing shock group winner status, and Canada hopeful of restoring some pride courtesy of a first point of the tournament.

The latter, to their credit, continued to push hard for a leveller, and came within inches of precisely that upon Atiba Hutchinson rattling the crossbar shortly after the interval.

When all was said and done, though, only one could have their way, with Morocco having ultimately held out, to march on as Group F’s finest ahead of both Croatia and the eliminated Belgium.


Player ratings

Canada

  • GK: Milan Borjan (4)
  • CB: Alistair Johnston (5)
  • CB: Steven VitΓ³ria (5)
  • CB: Kamal Miller (5.5)
  • RM: Sam Adekugbe (5)
  • CM: Anthony Kaye (4.5)
  • CM: Jonathan Osorio (4.5)
  • LM: Alphonso Davies (6.5)
  • RW: Tajon Buchanan (4.5)
  • ST: Cyle Larin (5.5)
  • LW: Junior Hoilett (7)

Substitutes:

Atiba Hutchinson (6.5), Ismael Kone - (5), Jonathan David - (5.5), Richie Laryea - (5.5), David Wotherspoon - (5)

Morocco

  • GK: Yassine Bounou (5)
  • RB: Achraf Hakimi (7.5)
  • CB: Romain SaΓ―ss (6)
  • CB: Nayef Aguerd (5.5)
  • LB: Noussair Mazraoui (6)
  • CM; Azzedine Ounahi (6)
  • CM: Sofyan Amrabat (6.5)
  • CM: Abdelhamid Sabiri (6)
  • RW: Hakim Ziyech (8)
  • ST: Sofiane Boufal (6.5)
  • LW: Youssef En-Nesyri (7)

Substitutes:

Zakaria Aboukhlal (5), Selim Amallah (5.5), Abderazak Hamdallah (5), Jawad El Yamiq (6), Yahya Jabrane (5)

Key Stats

Expert Analysis

Fan Reaction

Read more:

Declan Rice drops major hint on his future amid Manchester United and Chelsea interest

How Luis SuΓ‘rez vs Ghanaian journalists played out during heated press conference

Jamie Brown

Jamie Brown

Writer for 101 Great Goals since 2017. Founder of @Daily_Hotspur.


Related Content