Morocco is in the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time! That again defeated the former world champion Spain. There has never been a bigger day in Moroccan football history. After such an achievement, almost all the footballers of the team prostrated themselves on the ground. Members of the support staff also joined in that prostration.
At the Education City Stadium on Tuesday (December 6), the match will be decided by a penalty shootout if neither team can score in the scheduled time and extra time. Where Morocco won 3-0.
Spain has played 1018 passes in regular and extra time. But the real work could not be done. Morocco also wasted almost certain scoring chances. As a result, the match was made into a tiebreaker. In this test of nerve pressure, Morocco defeated Spain 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals.
Morocco scored in the first shootout. Later, Spain’s Pablo Sarabia’s shot bounced off the bar. Hakim, the biggest star of the team, came to take the second shot for Morocco, and he succeeded. Morocco’s goalkeeper Yassin Bono saved Spain’s second shot. Later, Unai Simon kept Spain’s hopes alive by turning away Morocco’s shot. But then, when Sergio Busquets missed the shot and Hakimi’s ball was in the net, the victory was confirmed for Morocco.
From the start, Spain started playing build-up football with small passes. They try to attack by keeping the ball in their possession. On the other hand, Morocco started to play football based on the counter-attack. In the 7th minute of the match, Morocco attacked from the right side. But Sergio Busquets blocked it. Then Spain attacked in the 9th minute of the match. But it got stuck in the Moroccan defense.
Morocco gets a free kick from outside the D box in the 10th minute of the match. From there, Ashraf Hakimi’s shot went narrowly over the crossbar. In the 15th minute of the match, Nausair Mazrawi crossed from the right side. But Spain’s goalkeeper Unai Simon took it with his gloves. Ashraf Hakimi crossed from the left side in the 20th minute of the match. But Aymeric Laporte cleared it.
Read More: Argentina vs Netherlands Match Statistics, Preview, Match Fixer
Spain got an easy chance in the 26th minute of the match. Marco Asensio receives the ball from Jordi Alba’s pass. From there shoot the ball into the side net. As a result, Spain does not get a goal. In the 33rd minute of the match, Nausair Mazrawi made a strong shot outside the D box. But Unai Simon saved the team with an extraordinary save.
After that, Spain made several attacks, but they could not take advantage of it. Morocco gets a free kick in the 41st minute of the match. However, even though they could not take advantage of there, Morocco attacked from there. Nayef Aguirre heads a cross from the left. But it goes over the crossbar. After that, Morocco failed to create opportunities again. Spain got a corner in the 45th minute of the match. However, Spain could not use it from there. Spain then made several more attacks. But in the end, if there is no goal, Spain and Morocco will go into the break without a goal.
Morocco started playing well from the beginning of the second half. And Spain brought Morata off in the second half to increase their attacking edge. In the 70th minute, Danny Olmore’s shot from inside the D box was blocked by Agard. Dani Olmo’s Bakan free-kick in the dying moments of the match was blocked by no Spanish player; When the opposite ball went into the goal, Bounau made a great save for the corner. Laporte headed in a great corner kick but was beaten by a solid Moroccan defense to end the match goalless. As a result, the match went into extra time.
Read More: Brazil vs Croatia Match Statistics, Prediction, Favorite Brazil
From the start of extra time, Spain started to play desperately for goals. In the knockout round of major tournaments, all 6 matches of Spain went to extra time. But in the 104th minute, Morocco missed the easiest chance of the match. Unai found Simmons alone in the D box but hit the ball on him, denying Morocco a goal. The 120 minutes ended in a scoreless situation when PSG star Pablo Sarabia’s shot went off the goalpost at the very last moment of the match.
At the end of the scheduled time, the Spanish players kept Morocco’s defense under a lot of pressure. But the defense formed by Romain Saiss and Nayef Aguirre did not allow any danger. It seemed that they were happy to take the match to a tiebreaker. In the end, they managed to do it and left the field with a smile of victory.