Morocco seal AFCON win against Comoros in 2025 opener

Host federation Morocco flooded a spirited situation by Africa Cup of Nations minnows Comoros to footwear disconnected the tournament.

Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) hosts Morocco overcame a nervy commencement to bushed the Comoros 2-0 successful the tournament’s opening crippled connected Sunday, aft Brahim Diaz and substitute Ayoub El Kaabi scored second-half goals.

It was a far-from-convincing showing from the highly fancied Morocco, who are ⁠97 places supra the tiny Indian Ocean land federation successful the satellite rankings and had to toil hard for the ​points successful the rainfall astatine Rabat’s Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Barcelona decision Villarreal with goals from Raphinha and Yamal
• list 2 of 4AFCON: Mo Salah focused connected Egypt ambition with Liverpool situation down him
• list 3 of 4La Liga: Mbappe equals Ronaldo grounds successful Real Madrid’s 2-0 triumph implicit Sevilla
• list 4 of 4Ekitike and Isak assistance Liverpool compression past nine-man Tottenham

Morocco squandered an aboriginal punishment and ‍were goalless astatine halftime, contempt dominating possession, yet breaking the deadlock successful the 55th minute, erstwhile Noussair Mazraoui did good to support the shot from going retired of play earlier passing it quadrate for Diaz to side-foot home.

El Kaabi scored a trademark bicycle footwear extremity ‍in the 74th ⁠minute, 10 minutes aft coming connected arsenic a substitute, to easiness the tension.

Morocco looked initially to beryllium labouring nether a dense load of expectation, and tiny Comoros comfortably held them astatine bay earlier the superior firepower of the hosts ensured victory.

The hosts could person been up arsenic aboriginal arsenic the 11th infinitesimal aft a brushed punishment was awarded for a situation by Iyad Mohamed connected Diaz. But Soufiane Rahimi deed the spot footwear consecutive down the middle, striking the genu of goalkeeper Yannick Pandor and watching the shot loop distant ​to safety.

But they yet broke down the resistance, arsenic Diaz got deserved rewards for ‌his continual probing and El Kaabi’s extremity ensured a respectable scoreline.

Pandor made respective different bully stops to support down the people successful the closing stages arsenic his teammates began to tire, though Comoros had a accidental for an equaliser 4 minutes aft Diaz’s goal, but Rafiki Said ‌shot consecutive astatine Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou successful their archetypal accidental of the match.

Ayoub El Kaabi scores Morocco’s 2nd extremity successful the 74th infinitesimal [Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP]

‘Difficult’ opening game

“The opening crippled is ever difficult, but ‌we came bully successful the 2nd half,” said Morocco manager Walid Regragui. ⁠

Morocco extended their record-breaking tally of successive victories by a nationalist squad to 19. In October, they went past the erstwhile champion of 15, acceptable by Spain from 2008-09.

There volition beryllium interest successful the location camp, however, aft skipper Romain Saiss limped disconnected aft 18 minutes, with the centre ‌back leaving the tract successful tears. He spent the archetypal fractional of the twelvemonth sidelined by ankle country and lone past period returned to the nationalist broadside aft a year’s absence.

Mali and Zambia conscionable connected Monday successful the adjacent ‍Group A clash successful Casablanca connected the 2nd time of the monthlong tournament. There are besides 2 Group B matches arsenic Angola conscionable South Africa successful Marrakesh, and Mohamed Salah leads Egypt against Zimbabwe successful Agadir.