Rabat – Morocco’s national futsal team qualified for the 2022 Continental Futsal Championship final after a convincing 1-4 victory against Finland in the semifinals on Thursday.
The final game will take place today, featuring Morocco and Iran, which qualified for the finals after beating host country Thailand 3-2.
Morocco produced a strong performance throughout the game, with the Atlas Lion Abdellatif Fati scoring a goal six minutes before the end of the first round. As the game progressed, the Finnish team grew more and more confident, repeatedly threatening the Moroccan goalkeeper, but to no avail.
As the first round was coming to an end, Khalid Bouzid and Soufiane Elmesrar scored Morocco’s second and third goals respectively.
Youssef Jawad then scored Morocco’s fourth goal eight minutes before the end of the game, while the Finnish squad managed to pull one goal back one minute and 50 seconds before the final whistle.
Read also: Morocco’s Futsal Team Ranks First in Africa, Arab World
Organized by Thailand’s Football Association (FAT), the tournament is taking place between September 11 and 16 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The latest futsal world ranking, published on September 4, placed Morocco’s national futsal team first in the Arab world and on the African continent.
With total points of 1441, the national team ranked 8th worldwide, surpassing Italy, Ukraine, and Columbia. The Atlas Lions’ global ranking increased by five spots in comparison to December 2021.
The current global ranking places the Iranian futsal team at the 6th spot globally, two spots ahead of its Moroccan counterpart.
Morocco entered the world’s top futsal teams list last June after clinching the Arab Futsal Cup title for the second year in a row. The Atlas Lions’ outstanding performance in the tournament made Morocco secure a spot for itself among the top teams in the global futsal scene.
The Moroccan team also won the 2016 and 2020 editions of the African Futsal tournaments.
The Continental Futsal Championship was another opportunity for the Moroccan squad to garner further exposure and public support, notably after their impressive performance.
