Science – Zuhair Alali
The Moroccan national football team exited the Africa Cup of Nations, at the final stage, after a sudden defeat to South Africa 0-2, this evening, Tuesday, on the floor of the Laurent Bocot Stadium in San Pedro, continuing the exit of the major teams from the tournament.
Evedence Makgoba (57th minute) and Teboho Mokoena (90+5) scored for South Africa.
Achraf Hakimi wasted a valuable opportunity to score by missing a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.
The match also witnessed Sofiane Amrabat receiving a direct red card (90 minutes).
With this victory, Bafana Bafana set a date next Saturday with its counterpart, Cape Verde, in the quarter-finals, which qualified at the expense of Mauritania.
The injuries among the Lions forced the national voter, Walid Al-Ragraki, to make adjustments to the usual lineup, by including Abdel Samad Al-Zalzouli and Amin Adly to replace the injured Sofiane Boufal and Hakim Ziyech, in addition to relying on Nassir Mazraoui, who returned from injury, in place of Yahya Attia Allah in the left-back position. .
The changes did not provide an offensive addition, especially on the part of Al-Zalzouli, who remained absent throughout the first half of the match, while his colleague Adly created some dangerous attempts on the right side, but he did not deal with them well.
The national team’s first attempts came in the tenth minute, through Adly, who received a through ball from Azzedine Onahi, then penetrated into the South African penalty area and shot a ball that collided with defender Mvala.
While the Moroccan players were unaware, player Mokoena sent a powerful shot that goalkeeper Yassine Bounou narrowly deflected into a corner kick (15th minute). The dangerous Percy Tau almost converted it into a goal after he predicted the ball well despite his short stature and headed it past the crossbar.
In the 32nd minute, Mazraoui succeeded in scoring a white goal, which was rejected by the Sudanese match referee, Mohamed Ismail, after returning to the “VAR” video technology, which proved that Abdel Samad Al Zalzouli was offside.
The series of wasting opportunities continued with the Atlas Lions on two occasions, the first from Adly, who penetrated into the opponent’s operations box, but hesitated to shoot or pass to give a chance to the South African defender in order to remove the danger (43rd minute), and the second from Salim Amlah, who received a pass on the left side. He preferred to shoot it directly instead of passing to his teammates, but his shot was not as accurate as required (44 min).
Unlike the first half, the national team players seemed more eager to score at the start of the second half, and the Lions’ first attempts came from Onahi, who exchanged the ball with Youssef En-Nesyri and shot it just over the crossbar (47th minute).
Seconds later, this time the Seismic winger succeeded in escaping with the ball from the middle of the field, past all the Bafana Bafana players, forcing the opposing defender to obstruct him inside the penalty area, but the referee deemed it a legitimate interference.
Against the course of the game, striker Makgoba received a deep ball through which he scored his team’s first goal in the 57th minute.
In an attempt to respond, Al-Zalzouli launched a dangerous attack, dribbling and shooting a strong ball that was blocked by the goalkeeper with difficulty, before it rebounded to Onahi, who sent it with his left, but the defender took the goalkeeper’s place in removing it.
Regragui made substitutions in order to inject new blood into the ranks of the players, by bringing in Ismail Al-Sibari, Amin Harit and Ayoub Al-Kaabi, the latter receiving a penalty kick that Hakimi failed to convert into a goal in the 83rd minute.
While the Moroccan players were looking for an opportunity to change the score, the referee, in the final minutes of the match, showed a red card to Sofiane Amrabat, so Mokoena committed the mistake that resulted in South Africa’s second goal from a direct free kick, thus announcing his team’s victory by two unanswered goals. Thus, reaching the next round to face qualified Cape Verde at the expense of Mauritania (1-0).