Achraf Hakimi scored the pick of the goals in Wednesday’s pair of matches as CAF resumed FIFA World Cup qualifying with action from Group I in Marrakech. Morocco’s Atlas Lions dominated from start to finish in their 5-0 destruction of upstarts Guinea-Bissau to establish themselves as top dogs in the group. Hakimi’s laser precision strike opened the scoring in the 31st minute before Watford FC’s Imran Louza marked his competitive debut with a penalty kick finish just before halftime. Ilyas Chair, Ayoub El Kaabi and Munir El Haddadi all tallied in the second half to complete the decisive victory and now Morocco leads the group by two points with margin for error.
In the earlier match also played in Marrakech due to Sudan’s insufficient stadium situation, the Falcons drew Guinea 1-1 thanks to a solid fight back after going down. Clermont Foot’s Mohamed Bayo rose up for an excellent header to finish off a corner kick in the 56th minute, and it appeared the Syli Nationale would march on to the three points. However, after Aguibou Camara missed a golden opportunity to make the lead two goals by blasting over, the Sudanese stepped up their level of play and found their way back into the match. Egyptian based forward Seif Teiri ran onto a through ball from star Mohamed Abdel Raman and smashed his shot past Moussa Camara to give Sudan their deserved equalizer and the teams split the points.
Guinea will look back at the match as a missed opportunity to get three points in a road fixture, and now trail group favorites Morocco by four points with work to do when they face the Atlas Lions in back-to-back games. Click the links below to watch highlights from both of Wednesday’s games.
