Morocco got their Africa Cup Group F campaign off to a flying start with a 3-0 win over Tanzania, who were too harmless overall
In the first 30 minutes or so, the favored Morocco, whose coach Walid Regragui had to do without Noussair Mazraoui, who was still suffering from an injury, but had called up Achraf Hakimi (PSG) and Sofyan Amrabat (Man United), among others, struggled against the initially well-positioned Tanzanians.
A free-kick from Hakim Ziyech eventually led to a 1-0 lead for Morocco: Tanzania keeper Aishi Manula deflected the attacker’s fluttering shot goalwards, but defender Romain Saiss dusted it off to level the scores at half-time (30′).
Against Morocco: Miroshi is shown the yellow card
After the break, the game became rougher. This culminated in a yellow card for Novatus Miroshi, who had already seen yellow before half-time and received his second caution for his late challenge on Azzedine Ounahi – and was consequently sent off (70′).
Curious: The Shakhtar Donetsk player had already been shown a yellow card in November in the World Cup qualifier in Tanzania against the Moroccans (0:2) – back then in the 65th minute.
Double pass: Adli sets up Ounahi’s 2:0
With ten Tanzanians now on the pitch, Morocco’s superior play then made things clear: Ounahi made it 2-0 (77′) after a one-two with Leverkusen substitute Amine Adli, who had come on a few minutes earlier. Hakimi set up center forward Youssef En-Nesyri in the 80th minute to make it 3-0
Morocco will face DR Congo on matchday 2 in Group F on Sunday (3pm). Tanzania will play Zambia a few hours later (6pm).
