No bad surprises for Morocco. Achraf Hakimi and his teammates won 3-0 against Tanzania on Tuesday, for their first match at CAN 2024 in Ivory Coast. A meeting of Group F. Surprising semi-finalists of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Atlas Lions opened the scoring through former Rennais Romain Saïss. The match was then tense for a long time, even downright tight, before goals from Marseillais Azzedine Ounahi and Youssef En-Nesyri in the last quarter of an hour. Morocco logically takes the lead in Group F before the match between Congo and Zambia later in the evening (9 p.m.).
Faced with the very compact block of the Tanzanians, the Atlas Lions tried to break the entry lines by starting behind the defense but they lacked precision. More and more technically comfortable, the Moroccans began to try more one on one to break the opposing defensive lines. It was finally after a foul obtained by Ziyech when recovering the ball that the opening goal arrived. The Galatasaray winger decided to hit this kick, slightly to the right at 30 meters, directly. Despite a floating trajectory, Manula, the Taifa Stars goalkeeper, repelled the Moroccan strike with both hands. But captain Romain Saïss followed perfectly and pushed the ball into the empty goal (1-0, 30th). After this first goal, the Moroccans looked to drive the point home but still lacked realism in the last gesture.
Returning from the locker room, the Taifa Stars were more offensive from the first minutes. They chained two strikes in a row, which escaped the target but which had the merit of existing and above all of showing their opponents that they intended to turn the match around in the second half. But this momentum did not last long. The Moroccans quickly got their foot back on the ball and planned again to put pressure on the Tanzanian cage.
But as in the first act, they still lacked realism and accuracy in the last gesture thus remaining within shooting range. After the expulsion of defender Miroshi (69th), the Atlas Lions took the opportunity to finally consolidate their domination. After a nice delivery from Adli, Ounahi crossed his shot perfectly at the entrance to the area to double the lead (2-0, 77th) Just after, En-Nousyri allowed Morocco to fly calmly towards victory ( 3-0, 81st). The Taifa Stars could not do anything in the second half, they endured every opportunity and finally crumbled outnumbered.
