At 23:00 Beijing time on December 1, the third round of Group F of the World Cup was contested, with Morocco beating Canada 2-1, with goals from Hakim Ziyech and Ennesri and Agde own goal. After three matches, Morocco beat Croatia to first place Group F with 2 wins and 1 draw, and qualified for the World Cup knockout stage for the first time in 36 years.
In this match, Monaco took only 5 minutes to break through the Canadian gate. Canadian goalkeeper Bojan missed a pass and Hakim Ziyech fired an empty shot into the net to make it 1-0. In the 23rd minute, Ashraf's long pass was volleyed into the net from 12 yards on the right side of Ennesri's penalty area, making it 2-0. After that, Agde oolong allowed Canada to take back a city. In the end, the score was fixed at 2-1.
Due to another match in the same group, Croatia drew 0-0 with Belgium. As a result, Morocco, with seven points, eventually advanced to the round of 16 as the first place in Group F, while World Cup runners-up Croatia finished second in the group with six points. "European Red Devils" Belgium were eliminated. It is worth mentioning that this is also the second time since the 1998 World Cup in Nigeria that African teams have advanced to the World Cup knockout stage as the first in their group.
There is no doubt that Morocco is the biggest dark horse of this World Cup. After the results of the draw, no one was optimistic that Morocco would qualify from the group. After all, Croatia in the same group were runners-up in the last World Cup, while Belgium were third in the last World Cup. Football is round. Morocco beat Belgium in the group stage by drawing with Croatia, and they used their strength and performance to earn themselves a chance to qualify first in the group.
In this World Cup, African teams performed well. African champions Senegal finished second in Group A to advance to the round of 16. Morocco has now advanced to the round of 16 as the first place in Group F. Ghana in Group H also has a good chance of advancing to the round of 16 for the rest of the fixture. But of the three teams, the most surprising performance was Morocco. They are the "light of Africa" in this World Cup!