Morocco 2, Brazil 1. We think we’re dreaming, and yet, that’s what it was given to read on the scoreboard of the big stadium of Tangier which hosted this Saturday the third football match between the national team of Cherifian kingdom and that of the Seleção, by the way current n° 1 of the Fifa ranking. Yes, Morocco has imposed itself well on Brazil and with style. For a first, it is a beautiful one that extends the momentum observed at the World Cup in Qatar where the Atlas Lions had climbed to the semi-finals, breaking the glass ceiling which had previously resisted Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana.
“I’m in a dream”, exclaimed during the post-match press conference, Walid Regragui, the Moroccan coach who drew attention to the exceptional timing (the Ramadan period) and the stature of the opponent of the day (five times world champion), whose absolute icon, Pelé, received a tribute at the very start of the match. However, the ex-coach of Wydad Casablanca wanted to remain balanced in the appreciation of this moment of ecstasy. “It’s a long road, you don’t have to get fired up to reach new heights,” he said.
Before the start of the game, Regragui had taken the measure of the scope of this match. “Morocco hopes to make history by beating Brazil for the first time on Saturday”, he said, indicating that the Atlas Lions would “come with humility and try to cause them the most problems and create a surprise “. “It would be nice if at home, with our public and after this World Cup, we could win this match”, he said, assuring that Morocco “is not favorite” in a match where he wished “to want to keep Lions identity” while taking “a lot more risk in the build because it’s a friendly game”.
Contrary to what one could imagine from the outset, it was the Atlas Lions who dominated this match against rather rough and uninspired Brazilians in the absence of Neymar, Marquinhos and Richarlison and despite the presence of Vinicius , Militao and Rodrygo. They were also the ones who created the first big chance of the match with Mazraoui whose shot grazed the right post of Weverton’s goals (23rd). And logically, they opened the scoring through Sofiane Boufal (29th) with a pivot shot close to the post on a decisive pass from young Bilal el-Khannous, tenured for the second time in the national team.
That said, three minutes earlier, Vinícius Jr. had scored, but his goal had been disallowed for offside, after a hazardous exit by Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou whose evening was not like what we met him at the World Cup in Qatar. The most perfect illustration of this was given by his failure against Casemiro’s innocuous shot in the 67th minute which allowed the Seleção to come back to score. Determined to make the best of copies, the Atlas Lions continued to push and managed to make the difference ten minutes before the end of the match thanks to a volley under the bar of Abdelhamid Sabiri entered during the match .
After two defeats, one conceded in Belém (0-2) in 1997 and another in Nantes in the group stage of the 1998 World Cup which had seen France’s first victory in the World Cup, this is the first time that Morocco emerges victorious from a confrontation with Brazil. To do this, Walid Regragui has renewed the framework that had succeeded so well in Qatar and illustrated the unprecedented epic of Moroccan, African and Arab football in the World Cup with qualification for the semi-finals. Thus, all the stars were there: Achraf Hakimi, replaced at the start of the second half, Hakim Ziyech, Azzedine Ounahi, Noussair Mazraoui and Sofyan Amrabat, accompanied by new talents, such as Benjamin Bouchouari (Saint-Étienne), Ayoub Amraoui ( OGC Nice) and Chadi Riad (FC Barcelona). “The idea is to have a group, the backbone and to think about the future, to prepare the new generations. If they are there (the young people), it means that they have their chance to play, “explained the ex-coach in a pre-match press conference. Something to delight the 65,000 spectators present at the Ibn Batouta stadium in Tangier, which hosted this sold-out match. Next meeting of the Atlas Lions: March 28 in Madrid against Peru, 21st in the Fifa rankings.
