Scotland is in a difficult group and yesterday they lost to Africa's second team (after the champions of Senegal) 0-1 on an early goal by the PSV striker Ismael Saibari. Scotland now have to face mighty Brazil, who will be pushing for a victory to take first place on goal difference, assuming that Morocco will defeat Haiti.
I hope Scotland will pull through, even losing to Brazil. They will be fun to watch, not because they play good football, but because of their beer-drinking fans.
Morocco have always been at the forefront of African football. In 1986 they were the first African nation to qualify from the group stages by defeating a European side, Portugal. 36 years later Morocco was to play another historical match in a World Cup quarterfinal to become the first African nation to make it to a World Cup semifnal. And yet again the adversary was Portugal.
But this Portugal, led by the great Cristiano Ronaldo, was considered one of the strongest teams in the world, and had in 2016 won the European championship. The young Diogo Costa, from Porto, had replaced the veteran Rui Patricio as goalkeeper, while defense was led by the ex-Real Madrid, now Porto, Pepe. He was flanked by Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot, Manchester City’s Ruben Dias and Joan Cancelo, PSG’s Danilo Pereira, and Dortmund’s Raphael Guerreiro. There were some fantastic and experienced midfielders: Ruben Neves from Wolverhampton, William Carvalho from Betis, Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United, and the young Vitinha, from PSG. Besides Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo the attacking power included Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva, Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix, AC Milan’s Rafael Leao and the young Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos.
Portugal had not qualified directly to the World Cup. They made second spot behind Serbia in the group stages, and had to go into play-offs, defeating Turkey and North Macedonia to qualify. Despite this, they were still top seeded, and drew a difficult group with Ghana, Uruguay and South Corea. They won the group following victories over Ghana and Uruguay, but losing to South Corea.
They had thus not shown their best, but they certainly did in the last-16; facing the traditionally strong defense of Switzerland, the Portuguese had a field day, winning 6-1, and checking in as one of the favourites for the title as they were to face Morocco in the quarterfinals.
Morocco had returned to the Russia World Cup in 2018 following a pause of 20 years. In Russia they had also faced Portugal in the group stages, losing 0-1, but it was a very different Morocco in 2022. The Bosnian manager Vahid Halilhodžić had taken over the side in 2019, and started using many promising young players as Morocco qualified in awesome style, winning all their group matches and dispatching RD Congo in the final play-off match. Despite the success, the Bosnian manager was fired over disagreements with the Moroccan federation only three months before the tournament, and he was replaced by the French-born ex-player and Wydad Casablanca manager Walid Regragui.
Regragui counted with a squad that was almost entirely Europe-based: on goal was Sevilla’s experienced goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou. The captain of of the team was the veteran Besiktas defender Romain Saiss, alongside one of the best defenders in the world at the time, PSG’s Ashraf Hakimi, as well as Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui, West Ham’s Nayef Aguerd, and Valladolid’s Jawad El Yamiq. On midfield the squad included Fiorentina’s Sofyan Amrabat, Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech, Angers’ Azzedine Ounahi and Sofiane Boufal, Standard Liege’s Selime Amallah, and the young but untried talents Anass Zaroury from Burnley and Bilal el Khannous from Genk. It was not an offensive team, and the few strikers included the Sevilla veteran Youssef-En-Nesyri, another veteran in Al-Ittihad’s Abderrazak Hamdallah, as well as youngster Abde Ezzalzouli from Osasuna and Sampdoria’s Abdelhamid Sabiri. The few Moroccan-based players were from Wydad Casablanca, including Yahya Jabrane and Yahia Attiyat Allah.
By the time they were to face Portugal, Morocco had already pulled outstanding surprises: they had won their group ahead of Croatia, Belgium and Canada by defeating the highly rated Belgians 0-2, Canada 1-2, and tying Croatia. In the last-16 they faced the mighty Spaniards, who had come from losing to Japan, and in a huge upset the won a defensive match after penalty kicks.
So Portugal had been warned, but still entered the match with a degree of arrogance against the African side. Cristiano Ronaldo had not started in against Switzerland, and his young substitute Goncalo Ramos had scored three goals. So Manager Fernando Santos had decided to start with the same lineup, benching Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Moroccans came into the match with energy and perhaps to the Portuguese surprise, with pressure. Already after 5 minutes En-Nesyri missed a big chance following a corner kick, and Morocco had more shots than the Portuguese, except for a Joao Felix shot that the Portuguese player was unlucky did not go into goal after a deflection. Towards the end of the first half En-Nesyiri scored after a cross from Yahia Attiyah Allah, getting high above Pepe in the Portuguese defense, and Morocco were deservedly leading at halftime.
Not much changed in the first minutes of the second half as Morocco had a big chance to score a second goal, and the Portuguese appeared lost. Cristiano Ronaldo came in a few minutes later alongside Joao Cancelo, and the dynamics changed as Portugal put more pressure on the Moroccans, who naturally pulled back and began to rely on their very dangerous counterattacks (they came very close to scoring a second on one of these counterattacks). But strong disciplined defense and a splendid Bonou kept Portugal away. Bonou in particular made a save on a shot from Joao Felix that was perhaps the best save of the entire tournament, and other good saves that gave his defense the necessary tranquility to fight against the Portuguese pressure. In the end it was a strong fight, and a second yellow for Walid Cheddira in the dying second underlined the passion that for the first time ever put an African side in a World Cup semifinal!
Morocco lost 0-2 in the semifinals, and then 1-2 to Croatia in the bronze match, but nothing could erase the historic victories over Spain and Portugal.
Match Stats:
Morocco-Portugal 1-0
Goals: Youssef En-Nesyri (42)
Teams:
Morocco: Yassine Bounou; Achraf Hakimi, Jawad El Yamiq, Romain Saiss (Achraf Dari, 57), Yahia Attiyat Allah; Azzedine Ounahi, Sofyan Amrabat, Selim Amallah (Walid Cheddira, 65, RD, 93), Hakim Ziyech (Zakaria Aboughlal, 82); Youssef En-Nesyri (Badr Benoun, 65), Sofiane Boufal (Yahya Jabrane, 82). Manager: Walid Regragui
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Pepe, Ruben Dias, Diogo Dalot (Ricardo Horta, 79), Raphael Guerreiro (Joao Cancelo, 51); Ruben Neves (Cristiano Ronaldo, 51), Bernardo Silva, Otavinho (Vitinha, 69); Goncalo Ramos (Rafael Leao, 69), Joao Felix, Bruno Fernandes. Manager: Fernando Santos.
I supported Senegal unapologetically in the CAF final between Senegal and Morocco. No matter what I would have supported a country I have visited a few times and where I have always enjoyed. But their 0-1 victory after extra time was so much sweeter as it happened against a home side that seemed to have all the favours in a final they felt entitled to.
It was towards the end when Senegal had a goal annulled for a very small free kick. In my view it can be defended, those decisions are always bound to have subjectivity, but what happened after this made it more suspicious, as Morocco was awarded a penalty for an equally subjective reason, a fault of those that can or can’t be awarded. I think that it would likely not have been awarded had it not been for a home team in a final…
Things exploded with the Senegalese players leaving the match, but in the end the penalty was finally taken and missed…
Brahim Diaz thought he could pull a Panenka, but it was the worst Panenka in history, arrogant surely, careless perhaps, and Edouard Mendy just caught it easily.
One felt better for Mendy as Moroccans had throughout the match in the most unsportsmanlike way tried to grab a towel he used to dry his gloves, and they could just watch as he saved, the match went into extra time, and Senegal won on a spectacular goal by Everton’s Idrissa Gueye.
Just sometimes there is justice in football, and Senegal winning the CAF was full blown justice.
It has been a bit of a poor year in terms of football as we await next year's big but probably overblown World Cup. Time-difference did not help as I worked too much and was more often than not too tired to watch football.
That said, some footballing memories worth mentioning:
Wishing everybody a happy new year 2026, for all fans and their teams, to enjoy football no matter who wins and who loses, even for my Cruz Azul-supporting cat:
Morocco has been crowned World Champions at the U-20 World Cup in Chile. In the final they faced a confident Argentina side, but the Moroccans sealed the match in the first half. Yassir Zabiri scored the first goal on a splendid free kick in a situation that perhaps should have been a penalty, but in the end it did not matter... Zabiri himself made it 2-0 on a great volley following a great pass from the tournament's best player, Othmane Maama.
After this Argentina pushed forward but without patience or a cool head. A lot of shots outside of the target and corner kicks that led to nothing. In the meantime the Moroccans let the Argentines have the ball, but stood back solidly and with a cool head.
In every way Morocco deserves this great title, and adds to Morocco's extraordinary strides in world football, and they will be a country to watch in the World Cup next year, when we will hopefully be able to see some of these great youngsters that won the title today.
The U-20 World Cup is taking place in Chile. A group with Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Morocco should be considered a group of death at any level, and yesterday I watched the final group match between Morocco and Mexico. Morocco have been flying and defeated Spain and Brazil 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, and before the match against Mexico were sure to win the group no matter the result as Mexico arrived in the match with two 2-2 ties.
Mexico ensured the second spot by winning 1-0 on a penalty goal by the 16-year Tijuana player Gilberto Mora (also the youngest goalscorer in the history of the Mexican top league). In the meantime Spain won 1-0 against Brazil, who are surely disappointed to be eliminated in the group stage.
Morocco and Mexico are through, and so are Argentina and Japan, with three victories, as well as Ukraine, Chile, Paraguay and Italy. There are still matches left in the last groups before we have all the teams in the last-16 of a very interesting tournament.
I have unfortunately not been able to watch much of the Women’s World Cup 2023; in El Salvador they do not show any matches (they are focusing on the Miss Universe contest to be held in November….), and although I am currently visiting Colombia and have watched a bit more, I remain limited by time difference.
That said, I have followed results closely. Here in Colombia they have been greatly excited by Colombia’s victory over Germany, 2-1 (and not least Linda Caicedo’s splendid goal, that in my view is the best so far in the tournament). Last though, Morocco defeated Colombia 1-0, which by itself would have been a big surprise, but as Germany only managed to tie South Corea 1-1, the surprise is that Colombia wins the group followed by Morocco, who are playing their first World Cup. Germany is eliminated for the first time ever in the group stages of a Women’s World Cup, and one must wonder whether this was not pure arrogance against sides they considered “small”.
I am delighted to see the ladies from outside Europe or North America go through!
Another surprise though, was the elimination of Brazil, who in their last match was unable to defeat Jamaica, who went through on second place behind France, and will face Colombia in the last-16. Brazil also appeared to be too sure of themselves, but the saddest part is the goodbye to the legendary Marta, perhaps the greatest female player of all time, who against Jamaica played her last World Cup match.
Thank you Marta.
Three teams have gone through with maximum points: Japan, England and Sweden, and these all look like some of the strongest. That said, Sweden will face defending champions of USA in the last-16 in what is bound to be a clash of titans. USA have looked shaky, going through the Netherlands after tying both the Dutch and Portugal, and defeating a weak Vietnam.
African teams have done great, and perhaps this is a sign of things to come: alongside Morocco, South Africa went through behind Sweden after a thrilling 3-2 win over Italy, while Nigeria through behind the hosts of Australia, whom they nevertheless beat 2-3.
The last-16 look as follows:
France defeated Morocco 2-0 in today's semifinal on goals by Theo Hernandez and Kolo Muani. Despite this France did not look as strong as expected, and Morocco should be proud of a match where they managed to put pressure on the world champions, who at times looked shaky.
Argentina surely looked on with interest.
Both sides can win: They are both teams with great players and deserve to be in the final. I do not hide my subjectivity in supporting Argentina, but beyond this also hope that the World Cup will end outside Europe for the first time since 2002.
France and Argentina do not share a strong World Cup history. They have met three times:
Both teams have won the World Cup twice (Argentina 1978 and 1986, France 1998 and 2018). For Argentina though, this will be their sixth final, while France is playing their third.
The match will also be sold as a contest between two great players and teammates in Paris St. Germain: Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have each scored five goals in the tournament and will be looking to become the most scoring player of the tournament.
Whichever way you turn it, it will be a match to go into history of the World Cups in the World Cup that should never have taken place.
I have had a lovely weekend with great friends and traveling half across the world, so have had limited time to reflect on the semifinals.
I watched Argentina's match in a nice bar in San Salvador. Over beers and ribs I suffered greatly: Argentina apparently had the match under control after Nahuel Molina and Lionel Messi had brought them ahead 0-2, but Wout Weghorst, coming on for the Dutch, scored two for the Dutch to equalize and take it into extra time and an eventual nerve-wrecking penalty shootout.
I shit my pants as Argentina's Emiliano Martinez, Dibu, held strong and saved the penalties from Virgil Van Dijk and Steven Berghuis, with Lautaro Martinez in the end scoring the winner for Argentina.
It was an intense and dramatic match, but most of all, ugly, full of hate, mutual provocation, and a referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz, that interestingly was accused by both sides of favouring the other side (maybe in the end that is the greatest compliment to a referee's neutrality). It is a pity that these players descend into that state of primitive cave-man mentality, but hey, that is why these guys are all footballers: they lack brains to be anything else.
As to Argentina: can they be World Champions? Yes, all four semifinalists can. But they are not the best or most stable team of the four. They could win the whole thing or end up losing 0-3 to the Croatians as they did in 2018.
Because watch out for Croatia! Just as four years ago in the semifinals after two penalty shootouts, and having eliminated a great Brazilian side! Because Brazil were great and it is truly sad to see them eliminated, but they lost again to a strong European side (Brazil has not defeated a European side in a World Cup knockout match since 2002!) who proved disciplined, organized and were not at all intimidated at playing against Brazil.
Morocco are the first African team ever to make it into a semifinal, and that in itself is truly historical, besides the fact that they repeated their feat of 1986 by defeating a Portuguese side that had not watched Morocco's other matches. It is great and refreshing to finally see and African team through, and they will face their biggest challenge in France, the defending World Champions, but also a country with which they have strong bonds; I hope it will be a fair and great match of mutual respect rather than the hateful nationalistic shit we are seeing in the tournament.
If not, rather watch Netflix.
Spain-Morocco: four years ago both sides tied 2-2 in the group stages, and now they tied 0-0, and Morocco went through winning 3-0 on penalty kicks.
An African team in the quarterfinals is great. Everyone supports Morocco. But let us be frank: they are not a team we like to watch. Defensive and well-organised, they are totally boring.
But they remain the small team that defeated the Spanish giants.
The Spanish giants who are not that gigantic: since they won the World Cup in 2010 Spain has won three matches in a World Cup: against Australia in 2014, against Iran in 2018, and the 7-0 over Costa Rica this year. Not impressive, and in fact quite disappointing for a team with such quality players. But the truth is that Spain, as they did today, spend a lot of time passing the ball around, but lack any explosion. They had a possession of 77% but only one shot within the goalposts!
That is not quality: that is inefficiency.
Spain can simply not win by being world champions in passing, and not even able to make one goal on penalty kicks (three misses!!!)
Spain should be better than that, so in the end one has to wish Morocco the best and be happy for an African team in the quarterfinals, where they will face Portugal.
Portugal destroyed Switzerland 6-1. Nobody talks about them, but they are surely a serious candidate for the title, and are huge favourites against Morocco. The Moroccans can simply not play that defensively against a side that attacks like Portugal, and if they have nothing to offer then Portugal are a sure semifinalist, and a likely finalist!
I hate this World Cup: it is a tournament of hate and anger. Just like the entire world. I would love to enjoy the football.
The Qatar World Cup continues to be an ugly political event that has come to symbolize ugly nationalism, disrespect, inequality, abuse and greed.
But I think this is just a symptom of our world.
In footballing terms the group stages have been interesting. After Brazil sensationally lost to Cameroun (and frankly this is as surprising as Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia or France losing to Tunisia) it is the first tournament since 1994 during which no team has gone through with maximum points (the same happened in 1958 and 1962, so it is not a common occurrence). But more interesting is that this is the first World Cup where all continental federations (except Oceania) are represented with at least one team (CONCACAF 1, CONMEBOL 2, CAF 2, UEFA, 8, AFC 3).
The eight matches are as follows:
In 1986 Morocco were the first African team that were group winners in a World Cup. They won the group ahead of three European nations (England, Poland and Portugal). Although Morocco were eliminated by a rather disgusting and foul West German side in the last-16, they were pioneers of the era when African teams were to be reckoned with (Cameroun and Algeria had already warned about this in 1982).
That is why it is so great that Morocco has again won a World Cup group, and again ahead of two European powerhouses, Croatia and Belgium; the latter ranked number 2 in the world, and surely never expected to be out to Morocco!
All Morocco needed in their last match was to defeat the already-eliminated Canadians to win the group, and 25 minutes into the match were already ahead 2-0 on goals by the great Hakim Ziyech and Sevilla's Youssef En-Nesyri. Although they did suffer after an own-goal by Nayef Aguerd, the score held (with a bit of luck), and as Croatia tied the hapless Belgians (surely the end of the golden generation), Morocco were group winners and a delight for Africa and the world!
Morocco will face Spain in what will be a clash to look forward to. Not only neighboring countries with close relations, but also many Moroccan players who play in Spain and know Spain well, such as PSG's Achraf Hakimi (born in Madrid and came through Real Madrid's youth academy), Sevilla's goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, or Osasuna's Abde Ezzalzouli (who has come through Barcelona's youth).
Spain are surely favourites, but Morocco has shown that they are a strong and competitive side that does well against European sides that underestimate them. Spain would be wrong to underestimate a team that seems to be riding on a wave!
Things are taking shape, more or less, in this World Cup; some teams are out, some are in, but many more have a lot to play for as we enter the last matches of the group stages.
This is a personal list of what I have liked and disliked in the tournament so far:
Still a lot to watch, and the list will surely change as the tournament progresses.
Canada has been a joy to watch in this World Cup; led by Alphone Davies they have a young and talented side, and mark my words: this is not the last we will have heard of Canada.
Against Croatia the Canadians were up against a great side that kept their cool after Davies' shock opener, and through Andrej Kramaric and Marko Livaja managed to turn a difficult match around, with Lovro Majer making it 4-1 in injury time in a too-large victory.
Croatia are serious about this tournament, and may reach as far as they did in 2018.
Canada were very unlucky to lose 0-1 to Belgium. Belgium's performance appears to not have been a one-off, and today a great Moroccan side were superior to the famous Belgians. Morocco went ahead on a free kick goal by Abdelhamid Sabiri (and Courtois did not look too good either), while Zakaria Aboukhlal made it 0-2 in injury time. Hakim Ziyech was simply fantastic and is certainly a player that can carry Morocco very far in this tournament.
I was recently in Morocco, and can imagine the partying in that football-crazy nation!
Morocco can take first place in the group with a victory over Canada (it will not be easy!), while Belgium is forced to win against a Croatia that looks far stronger than Belgium. It appears unlikely, and it may be that elimination in the first round of this World Cup will be the end of Belgium's golden generation of players.
The African Cup of Nations is always a great tournament and it is great to be able to watch some of the matches here from El Salvador. Ghana has always been my favorite African team, so I was excited to be able to watch the Black Stars against Gabon. Ghana should be considered one of the outsiders for the title, but lost their first match 0-1 to Morocco, and were thus forced to pull a result against Gabon; preferably a win before their last match against the Comoros (whom Gabon defeated 2-0).
Gabon started the best, but the experienced Ghanaians slowly worked their way into the match and I one of their few attacks Andrew Ayew scored after getting well away from the defender into a good shooting position. But after this Ghana were a disappointment. In the most outdated and boring catenaccio style the Ghanaians stood back to defend their narrow lead against a Gabonese side that had to be commended for playing their chance. Gabon’s reward and Ghana’s well-deserved punishment came in the 88th minute when Jim Allevinah, Claremont striker, equalized for Gabon.
It was only then that Ghana again attacked, and they even produced a good chance following a corner, but frankly they deserved to be where they were for having played on the 0-1, instead of attacking more. After the match a huge brawl ensued as the Ghanaian players, sore losers, seemed angry at everyone, and amid the row one player was given a red card.
Ghana did sadly not win friends on this day, and in their final match against Comoros they must show that they can attack, while hoping that Morocco (who has almost qualified with two wins), defeats a hard-working Gabon.
