(Football news) The 2022 World Cup has already produced so many shock results and upsets. The latest one was yesterday when Morocco defeated Belgium 2-0. Morocco is ranked 22nd in the FIFA rankings while Belgium is ranked 2nd, so it’s fair to say that it is a massive upset. Roberto Martinez made 3 changes to his starting line-up but unfortunately for him it didn’t work. The first half was pretty cagey and even but Morocco did manage to find the back of the net as Ziyech’s free-kick found its way in from Thibaut Courtois’ near post. VAR ruled it out for as a Morocco player who was in an offside position was blocking Courtois’s sight.
The game was pretty even until the 73rd minute when Romain Saiss scored from Abdelhamid Sabiri’s free-kick which was similar to the disallowed goal. Hakim Ziyech assisted Zakaria Aboukhlal in the dying minutes of the game to seal the victory. Ziyech was named the Player of the Match for his incredible performance. It was just some time ago that Ziyech had retired from the national team due to conflicts with former coach Vahid Halilhodžić. But now under new coach Walid Regragui he is flying at the biggest stage and showing his quality.
“You know this guy, he is incredible. The spirit, when he came back into the national team, it came back. What a lot of people say about him is that he’s a crazy guy, a difficult guy to manage, he can’t help the team. But for me what I see is that when you give him love and confidence, he can die for you. And that is what I give him. And he returned to me my confidence and the confidence of the fans of Morocco, because a lot of fans of Morocco wanted Hakim to come back into the team and he knew that.”
Morocco manager Walid Regragui on Hakim Ziyech.
Belgium have not turned up in Qatar as even in their win against Canada they were 2nd best. The good news for them is that with a win against Croatia, Belgium can still qualify. Kevin De Bruyne before the game was asked if Belgium can win the World Cup to which he replied ” No chance, we’re too old” which is not something you want one of your senior players to say. After losing the match Jan Vertonghen said “We probably also attack badly because we are too old, that must be it now, surely?” which was quite clearly a dig at Kevin De Bruyne. Which suggests that there may be some unrest in the dressing room.
Also read: 2022 World Cup: Germany score late equaliser to draw against Spain
