World Cup: Africans Making History As Ziyech Guides Morocco To Victory

As Africans continue to make history, Hakim Ziyech motivated Morocco to a 2-1 victory over Canada in their World Cup final Group F match on Thursday at the Al Thumama Stadium.

In the fourth minute, Ziyech calmly broke the scoreless tie. The Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan made a terrible error that gave the attacker the ideal chance to score.

Directly from Borjan, Ziyech lofted the ball over the goalkeeper and into the goal.

Canada launched an attack in the 15th minute, with Tajon Buchanan leading the onslaught. He surged forward and picked out Cyle Larin, whose effort went inches wide, and that meant an opportunity lost for the North Americans.

Youssef En-Nesyri scored the second goal for the Atlas Lions in the 23rd minute. The center-forward got past the defenders of Canada and unleashed a strong low shot to increase Morocco’s advantage.

As they progressed in the match, Canada was rewarded with an own goal by Nayef Aguerd in the 39th minute. Yassine Bounou was able to get Yassine Adekugbe’s ball past the center-back.

The goalie attempted to stop the ball from crossing the line quickly, but was unsuccessful, and Morocco lost for the first time in the competition.

When En-score Nesyri’s was disallowed for offside, his celebration was cut short. Although he didn’t touch the ball, Aguerd was offside because he blocked the goalkeeper as the striker slammed the ball home.

The Atlas Lions resisted Canada’s constant pressure to earn three points that put them in first place in their division.

En-Nesyri looked energetic against the Canadians despite not scoring in their previous two games. The confidence coach Walid Regragui had in the center-forward is confirmed by his performance.

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En-Nesyri must be as dangerous as possible in front of goal for Morocco to maintain their World Cup hopes as they advance to the next round.

On the right side of their front three, Ziyech was outstanding, as he had been against Belgium. He has been in tantalizing form, and Regragui’s choice to have him join the national team again has already paid off.

The Moroccans enter the knockout stages with their confidence sky high after winning their group, which also included top-ranked Belgium and 2018 finalists Croatia.

The Atlas Lions defeated Belgium 2-0, and Belgium was eliminated following a scoreless draw with Croatia.

Aguerd gave up after playing strongly against both Croatia and Belgium when he deflected the ball into his own goal. He was also flagged for offside, which prevented Morocco from scoring a third goal.

He appeared to have been unaffected by the own goal and the offside call, though, as he quickly collected himself and contributed significantly to Morocco’s second consecutive victory.

Walid is not anticipated to remove Aguerd from his starting lineups in the future given his generally solid partnership with Romain Saiss.

Only the second time in their history, the Atlas Lions have advanced to the World Cup’s round of 16.