Rabat, January 13, 2024 – Morocco secured a 2-0 victory over Comoros Sunday in the opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations, but the win felt more like a sigh of relief than a jubilant celebration for the tournament hosts.
Nerves adn a Missed penalty Mar Morocco’s AFCON Opener
The highly-favored Moroccan side, seeking their first Cup of Nations title in 50 years, struggled to find their rhythm amidst driving rain and early jitters.
- Morocco overcame a slow start and a missed penalty to defeat comoros 2-0.
- brahim Díaz of Real Madrid and Ayoub El Kaabi scored for the hosts.
- Morocco captain Romain Saiss was forced off injured in the first half.
- Coach Walid Regragui acknowledged the team’s initial struggles and made halftime adjustments.
the breakthrough didn’t arrive until after halftime,with goals from Brahim Díaz and Ayoub El Kaabi sealing the win for Morocco. However, the margin could have been larger as Comoros faded in the later stages and the hosts finally settled into a more confident stride.
“It’s never easy to get into the competition,” said Morocco coach Walid Regragui, who previously led the team to the semifinals of the World Cup in Qatar. “An opening match is always difficult, but we did the job. It was critically important to win our first match,in front of our fans,to get off to a good start in the competition.”
Regragui admitted the team felt immense pressure heading into the tournament. “We’d been preparing for this match for a year and a half and put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” he explained. “The game got off to a bad start, with that missed penalty and romain saiss being substituted.”
The Morocco captain, Romain Saiss, who had been sidelined earlier in the year following ankle surgery, left the pitch in tears after just 18 minutes due to an innocuous push. The extent of his injury remains unknown.
“At halftime, I wasn’t very happy with the team and made some adjustments, which the boys implemented very quickly,” Regragui added.
Real Madrid’s Díaz opened the scoring 10 minutes into the second half and was later named man of the match.”We needed to create a lot of chances because,of course,they played with 11 players behind the ball,so it was a difficult game,” Díaz said. “We need to keep improving and create more chances to score goals.”
Morocco faces a more challenging test in their next Group A match against Mali on Friday.
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