Morocco’s first World Cup win after 24 years
Substitutes Abdelhamid Sabiri and Zakaria Aboukhlal earned Morocco their first World Cup victory in 24 years as they upset a hugely disappointing Belgium side 2-0 in World Cup Group F on Sunday.
The Morocco fans gave the match a vintage World Cup feel in a boiling atmosphere at the Al Thumama Stadium and Sabiri curled a wide free kick past Thibaut Courtois before Aboukhlal netted in stoppage time to put Morocco top of Group F with four points, one ahead of Belgium.
It was Morocco’s first win at a World Cup since they beat Scotland in 1998. They left the 2018 tournament with a single point.
“We scored at the right moment. We deserved to win. After 70 minutes some of our players were tired, but the way the crowd got behind us, they really helped us. They gave us a big boost,” said man of the match Hakim Ziyech.
Belgium, who had scraped a 1-0 win over Canada in their opening game, again looked a pale shadow of the team who finished third in 2018 and climbed to second in the world rankings. They must now battle for a last-16 spot against Croatia.
“It’s a difficult result. We couldn’t get our game going. It’s a game we need to understand; we need to be together and react. That’s what happens at the World Cup,” said Belgium coach Roberto Martinez. The Red Devils’ poor display even forced Martinez to send Romelu Lukaku on for the last 10 minutes in a desperate attempt to salvage a point, even though the burly striker had been struggling with a hamstring problem
World Cup riot in Brussels
Meanwhile, Belgium fans have staged riots in their country’s capital Brussels after they slumped to an embarrassing World Cup 2-0 defeat to Morocco on Sunday.
As per various reports, police deployed water cans and fired tear gas in an effort to control the crowds as scenes turned increasingly ugly.
Footage has shown supporters lighting fires in the middle of the road in the Belgian capital with a red car then having its windows smashed before it was flipped.
Further videos show fans hurling fireworks and bricks towards traffic, while Moroccan fans living in the country continued to celebrate. Brussels mayor Philippe Close issued a strong statement to condemn the violence. “I strongly condemn the incidents that occurred this afternoon.
“The police have already acted harshly. So I advise supporters not to come to the centre.
“The police are doing everything they can to maintain public order.”
Tensions between supporters had apparently been mounting ahead of the meeting in Qatar with an estimated quarter of a million of the country’s inhabitants being of Moroccan descent.
Fireworks were thrown near Brussels-South railway station before kick-off, whilst the scenes grew increasingly more violent come the conclusion of the game.