Fez – Morocco’s Futsal team won 6-4 in today’s game against Kuwait for the opening match of the 2022 Arab Futsal Cup currently held in Saudi Arabia.
With today’s win, the Moroccan team has moved to the top of Group A, with three well-deserved points.
Being the titleholders, Morocco’s Atlas Lions started the game with a noticeable determination to clinch a much-needed victory to mount a campaign to win the precious competition for the second time in a row.
The Moroccan team dominated the court as soon as the game kicked off, looking determined to outplay their underdog Kuwaiti opponent.
The Atlas Lions put up a great display in the first half, asserting their dominance with an early goal by Idriss Raiss El Fenni in the 17th minute.
Energized by this early lead, the Moroccan squad pushed harder against the Kuwaiti defense as they looked to make the most of their dominance.
But the Atlas Lions’ relentless efforts yielded no fruits as they were faced with a well compact defense from the Kuwait team.
Even more worrying for the Moroccan team, an increasingly confident Kuwaiti squad soon grew into the game in the closing stages of the first half. Appearing to have woken up from their defensive retreat, the Kuwaitis took the game to the Atlas Lions as they now pushed for an equalizer.
Kuwait’s Abderahmane Touil turned his team’s aspirations into a reality after he succeeded in scoring the game’s equalizer.
With a 1-1 draw, the referee’s whistle came to send both teams to the dressing room to refresh and re-organize their lines.
During the second half, the Atlas Lions appeared more determined and motivated to create more trouble for the Kuwaiti defense and seal a morale-boosting victory.
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The Moroccan squad’s continuous quest for a second goal proved fruitful in the 17th minute as El Fenni profited from a defensive blunder, driving the ball into the Kuwaiti net.
But less than three minutes after this goal, the Kuwaiti squad came back again in the game by scoring their second goal.
Yet, the Moroccan players, ever determined to seal their first victory in the competition, got the upper hand in the 10th minute of the second half.
El Fenni was once again the man of the moment, scoring the Moroccan team’s third goal after a beautiful collective build up.
Less than a minute after this goal, Morocco added the fourth goal by Mohamed Jaouad.
But even as Morocco led the game by 4-2, the match was far from being sealed for the Atlas Lions as the Kuwaiti squad put on a great display in the second half, scoring two more goals and getting the game back to where it had begun.
In the following minutes, however, the Atlas Lions started pushing for a winning goal as they launched a full-scale attack against the opponent’s defenses.
Creating one chance after the other, Morocco’s Abdelatif Fati came up with the working formula for the Atlas Lions as he scored the team’s fifth goal.
Now fully aware that the Kuwaiti team could yet again come back, the Moroccan squad tried even harder to kill the game with a sixth goal.
El Fenni emerged once again as the Moroccan team’s savior at the last minute of the second half; he scored the sixth goal and carried the Atlas Lions to the top spot of Group A.
The Moroccan futsal team will face off against Somalia on Tuesday for the second game of the group stage. Meanwhile, the team’s third game will be against Mauritania on Wednesday.
