Morocco open their home AFCON campaign with 2-0 win over Comoros courtesy El Kaabi’s stunning overhead kick.
El Kaabi’s stunning strike caps Morocco win over Comoros in Afcon opener.
In Sunday’s opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco overcame a nervous start to defeat Comoros with to goals from Brahim Díaz and substitute Ayoub El Kaabi in the second half.
However, the highly anticipated Morocco, who are ranked 97 spots higher than the tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, had to fight hard for the points in the rain at Rabat’s Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium, and their performance was far from convincing.
Despite controlling possession, Morocco missed an early penalty and remained goalless at halftime. However, in the 55th minute, Noussair Mazraoui did a good job of keeping the ball in play before passing it square for Díaz to sidefoot home.
Ten minutes after entering the game as a replacement, El Kaabi then eased the tension with a magnificent bicycle kick in the 74th minute.
At first, Morocco appeared to be struggling under a lot of pressure, and Comoros easily held them at bay before the hosts’ superior firepower guaranteed victory.
In the eleventh minute, Iyad Mohamed’s challenge on Díaz resulted in an easy penalty, which may have put the home team up. However, Soufiane Rahimi’s penalty kick went straight down the middle, hitting Yannick Pandor’s leg and causing the ball to bounce away to safety. However, they eventually overcame the opposition as El Kaabi’s goal guaranteed a decent score and Díaz received just compensation for his persistent probing.
Although Comoros had a chance to equalise four minutes after Díaz’s goal, Rafiki Saïd shot directly at Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou in their first opportunity of the game. However, Pandor made numerous additional excellent stops to keep the score down as his colleagues started to weary.
Walid Regragui, the Morocco coach, remarked, “The opening game is always difficult but we came good in the second half,” following his team’s record-breaking streak of consecutive wins by a national team to 19. They surpassed the previous mark of 15, which was set by Spain in 2008–09, in October.