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Rabat – Today’s game was a difficult mission for both Morocco and Egypt, with an eye on the 2021 AFCON semi-final, Egypt won the highly anticipated AFCON quarter-finals game against Morocco with 2-1.
Morocco dominated the first quarter of the game, with Egypt slightly overthinking and making life harder for themselves with nervous mistakes.
Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal unlocked the game for Morocco on penalty in the first half.
But the Moroccan team then appeared to drop their level; they waited as Egypt looked for an equalizer and tried to play on the counter and quick transitions.
As Egypt grew more confident and more into the game, however, Morocco’s dominance waned and the Atlas Lions retreated more than they actually played.
For a quarter-final clash that many expected to be of high tactical and technical quality, the first half was rather laborious and full of technical mishaps from both teams.
Despite Egypt trying their best in the first half to get back into the game in the first half, Morocco’s strong defensive line stood tall to defend their ground until the end.
The Egyptians then seemed to have woken up during the break and resumed with great performance in the second half.
Egypt asserted its growing dominance in the first minutes of the second half, forcing Morocco into conceding more fouls that they had been used to in the whole tournament. The Egyptian team got the upper hand with a corner at the 53rd minute.
Moroccan keeper Bounou was well placed to fend off a head kick from Egypt’s Abdelmoneim. But with Munir El Haddadi covering Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool star player managed to score the much-needed equalizer for Egypt.
The goal appeared to inspire a more spirited response from Morocco. Waking up from their self-imposed slumber, Morocco’s Atlas Lions started pushing for a winning goal. By the time Morocco started dictating the tempo, however, Egypt had grown confident and was now present to counter Morocco’s offensives.
During the overtime, the Egyptian Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan, commonly known as Trezeguet, scored Egypt’s second goal from a sublime pass from Mohamed Salah.
While Egypt progresses to the semifinal, where they will play against host Cameroon, Moroccans are left with yet another what-if moment following an exit from a continental tournament in which they were among the big favitiries.
Even with the overwhelming impression that this year’s defeat is not as disappointing as the much earlier exit from AFCON 2019 to underdog Benin, there sure will be some questions about what would have happened had Morocco played with more initiative and a stronger mentality after scoring today’s opener.
