Morocco beat a star-studded Belgium 0-2 to secure their first 3 points of the tournament and go top of Group F at the Al Thumama Stadium. As expected, the Belgians started the match with a lot of intent with most of their play going through the Hazard brothers; Thorgan and Eden.
Some neat out-of-training move almost led to an opening goal for Belgium but De Bruyne’s shot from 25 yards out was blocked in the 16th minute.
Morocco’s first crack on goal came in the 20th minute but Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech could only hit the target above the bar, Courtois had it covered. Belgium registered their sixth corner of the match but could not make this one count either as a big hand from Bono cleared the ball.
Belgium was almost punished at the stroke of halftime, with Ziyech’s fine strike from a free-kick canceled as Romain Saiss had interfered with play from an offside position.
0-0 at the break, with much to do for both teams in the second half. The second half started off in similar fashion as the first, with Belgium seeing much of the ball to no effect, and a rare shot on goal for Morocco.
With Morocco growing in ascendance, the Belgian coach made some needed changes with Mertens and Tielemans coming in for Eden Hazard and Onana respectively.
Deadlock was finally broken and deservedly so as wrong positioning from Courtois allowed Abdelhamid Sabiri to curl in a wide free-kick at pace towards the near post for the first direct free-kick goal of the tournament.
Belgium turned up the heat after going down but it proved too little too late as Morocco scored their second goal of the match through Zakaria Aboukhlal to secure the 3 points.
