Fatima Tagnaout was the star of the show with a brace as AS FAR came back from one goal down to beat Green Buffaloes in the battle of Armies at Stade Prince Héritier Moulay El Hassan on Wednesday.
This good result for ASFAR means that the Moroccans are now qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament.
The Moroccan and Zambian Army-sponsored clubs went toe-to-toe on the back of their impressive starts to the competition in Group A, having recorded 1-0 and 4-0 victories over Simba Queens and Determine Girls respectively in Rabat on Sunday.
The Moroccan giants started the anticipated lively contest at Stade Moulay El Hassan with a seventh-minute effort from Ibtissam Jraidi inside the area flying inches over the Buffaloes’ bar.
The Zambians responded almost instantly in their fashion when Agness Musase was set up inside the Morrocans’ box but her attempt marginally went off target in the 11th minute.
Eight minutes later, Ireen Lungu set up Hellen Chanda, who completed a sweet passing interchange for the former’s powerful shot to go past helpless Kdadija Er-Rmichi into the net.
Having seen themselves behind, the hosts fought back and were gifted a chance from the spot and Tagnaout wasted no time in converting to level matters on the half hour mark.
After finding the leveller, the Moroccans looked the hungrier side in the closing stage of the first half as Tagnaout and Najat Badri had chance after chance went begging before the half time break.
On resumption, both teams made an enterprising start to the second half but could not profit from the chances until the Zambian Army conceded another penalty from a poor challenge.
Tagnaout expectedly rose to the occasion yet again and converted the resulting kick to complete the Moroccan Army’s comeback in the 62nd minute and they held on to ensure back-to-back victories despite Zineb Redouani’s late sending-off.
The result takes AS FAR to the summit of Group A with six points and a qualification to the semi-final with one game to spare, which comes up against Determine Girls on November 5 at the same venue.
On the other hand, the defeat sees Green Buffaloes drop to second place with three points, sitting above their next and final Group A foes Simba Queens by a superior goal difference.
Source: Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF)