Reuters:
Morocco settled for a 1-0 victory over Scotland thanks to the fastest goal in the current edition of the FIFA World Cup, boosting its hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of Group C early on Saturday.
Morocco took the lead after just over one minute through Ismail Sibari, who took advantage of a pass from Brahim Diaz. Saibari had scored the goal that put the Atlas Lions in the lead in a 1-1 draw with Brazil in their opening match.
The Moroccan national team, which qualified for the semi-finals of the last edition in Qatar 2022, dominated the course of the match and its players took turns wasting opportunities, but maintained its lead to score the three points.
With this result, Morocco leads its group with four points, one point ahead of Scotland, second in the standings, which began its tournament campaign with a 1-0 win over Haiti, which is at the bottom of the group, before facing Brazil later today.
The Moroccan national team started the match strongly, and a little more than one minute after the starting whistle, the scoring was opened by Saibari, who received a perfect long pass from Diaz that put him in front of the goalkeeper and fired a powerful shot into the net. BeIN Sports, the official broadcaster of the tournament, said that Saibari scored the fastest goal for an Arab team in the history of the World Cup and the second fastest goal for an African team in the tournament. The strong display from the Moroccan national team continued, and Saibari played a low pass inside the penalty area that strangely passed in front of two of his teammates in front of the goal. Nael El Aynaoui almost doubled Morocco’s lead with a powerful shot from inside the penalty area after a run by Diaz, but his attempt went over the crossbar in the 30th minute. Minutes later, Bilal Al-Khanous came close to scoring, but his shot went over the crossbar. At the beginning of the second half, after a quick attack on the left side led by Al-Khannous, the ball reached Sibari, who fired a shot that hit one of Scotland’s defenders and hit the crossbar outside the field. Al-Khannous almost doubled Morocco’s lead with a header from a corner kick, but the goalkeeper blocked it brilliantly. The Scotland team pressed towards the end, hoping to achieve an equaliser, but their efforts were not crowned with success, and the Moroccan team achieved its first victory in the current edition. Morocco will conclude its campaign in the first round of the tournament by facing Haiti on Thursday, at the same time as Brazil’s match against Scotland.
