Morocco’s national team under the guidance Senegalese Oumar Ngalla Sylla started their campaign with a 3-1 victory over Mozambique on Sunday, opening up good prospects to advance to the next stage.
Despite the defeat, nothing is lost for Mozambique, which now depends on others to know their fate in the competition. With defeat, Mozambique risk crossing the path of three-time champions Senegal in the semi-final clash. Should the Moroccans win tomorrow, the hosts will move on to the semi-finals as the second best team in the group.
At the moment, Mozambique are hostage to the calculator.
After beating Malawi (4-3), the Mozambican team showed high levels of anxiety once again and missed several goalscoring opportunities.
The hosts and African runners-up, Mozambique benefited from the home advantage and, with the crowd behind them, opened the scoring early in the game through Ramossete Cumbe, who scored from a penalty in the second minute of the first period.
The Moroccans balanced the situation only in the second period through Kamal Yassine (1-1) and did not feel under pressure from the crowd. With 25 minutes to go Morocco got the better of the crowd with the second goal scored by the marksman from the service of the Egyptian club Melilia BS. It was a bucket of cold water on a hot afternoon for the Mozambican fans, who saw their team trailing at half-time in the second period.
Mozambique’s situation became even more complicated at the start of the third period. In addition to constantly missing the target, the Mozambican defense proved inefficient, leaving space for Morocco to make it 3-1, a goal scored by pivot Zouhair Jabbary.
After the participation in the COSAFA 2022 Cup, in which the national team finished in the fourth position, alarm bells were ringing, with the sports critics showing apprehension, considering the performance of the Mozambican players was far below expectations.
Morocco are an opponent who recently crossed the path of Abineiro Ussaca’s men, in a friendly quadrangular match held in Maputo this year. In that test, the Mozambicans lost the first test (4-1) and won (5-2 and 7-4) in the remaining challenges.
Last year, they had beaten the same Morocco (2-1) in the group stage.
What they said
Mozambique coach Abineiro Ussaca
“We are disappointed because we had everything in our hands, but we lost the game. At this moment, we have to raise our heads and think about what is coming next. We don’t know what will happen in the Morocco-Malawi game. But the most important thing for us is to qualify without having to use a calculator. If Morocco wins, it will be good for our team because we will qualify directly, but if Malawi wins things will get a bit complicated. So far, we have the advantage of having scored the most goals.”
Oumar Sylla, Morocco coach
“Mozambique is a strong team, we are very happy, now we are going to be ready for the next match, to see the other team and also organize what it is not good in our team, so that we can perform even much better. Mozambique has a strong team and wish them good luck”.
Source: Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF)