Morocco earned their third World Cup win against FIFA’s second-best ranked team Belgium as goals from substitute pairing Abdelhamid Sabiri and Zakaria Aboukhlal sealed a historic 2-0 victory.
The north Africans join Saudi Arabia and Japan, the conquerors of Argentina and Germany respectively, in upsetting the odds to stun opponents who, traditionally, have enjoyed long-established success on the world stage.
Sabiri impressively found the net from an incredibly tight angle in the 73rd minute, beating Thibaut Courtois at his near post, before Aboukhlal converted Hakim Ziyech’s delivery to seal a momentous win in second-half stoppage time.
Morocco had failed to score in 53 per cent of their World Cup encounters before their meeting with the much-fancied Europeans, who had not lost a group game since 1994.
The game began in the fashion that most would have anticipated, not helped by the fact Morocco were forced into making a mystery change of goalkeeper moments before kick-off, replacing Yassine Bounou with Munir El Kajoui.
Munir, who plays his club football in Saudi Arabia, was called into action early to deny Michy Batshuayi – Belgium’s match-winner against the Canadians – as the ex-Chelsea striker collected an incisive pass from Thorgan Hazard, but did not have the guile to beat the stand-in stopper.
Belgium were comparatively laboured throughout, offering very little threat from their star marksmen, as Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and brother Thorgan were all stifled by Morocco’s steely determination.
The premise that this is a tournament beyond the reach of Roberto Martinez’s ‘golden generation’ – most of whom are now edging over the age of 30 – is beginning to ring progressively more true.
Morocco’s foothold in the game was far more gradual, but the majority of the Al Thumama Stadium, which was dominated by Moroccan fans, were aggrieved when Ziyech’s free-kick was chalked off by VAR – prompting a sense of injustice that carried through to the second period.
The setback certainly did not derail Morocco’s players, as Sofian Boufal and Ziyech grew in influence, before Sabiri curled a right-footed free-kick past a despairing Courtois, much in the same way the Chelsea winger had some 30 minutes earlier. Again Saiss was obstructing the Real Madrid goalkeeper’s view, but this time VAR declined to intervene.
Aboukhlal then put the gloss on an incredible triumph when he fired beyond Courtois, again at his near post, from Ziyech’s cute cut-back.
Belgium are by no means condemned, but may now need to beat Croatia in a Group F showdown to progress to the last 16 – both of those nations were on the podium in Russia only four years ago.
Sky Sports