Morocco beat Comoros in AFCON
The host nation Morocco have started the tournament on the high note after beating Comoros 2-0 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Morocco . Morocco came into the game as favorite after their previous performances including the World Cup in Qatar , where they were knocked out in the Semi Final. In the previous Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast they did not reached the semis. In the first half Morocco tried everything to unlock the low block applied by their opponents but it wasn't to be . In the first ten minutes in the game Morocco got the opportunity after the VAR awarded them with a penalty .
Soufiane Rahimi misses a penalty from the spot , it was saved by Comoros goalkeeper Mohamed Pandor who is playing for Lens in the French ligue one . Comoros managed to frustrate Morocco in the first half . In the first half coach Wahid Regragui was forced to make changes , he replaced Romain Saiss for Jawad El Yamiq due to injury . Yannis Kari got a yellow card for Comoros in the 36 minute . In the second half Ayoub El Kaabi came in for S. Rahim in the 65th minute . Abde Ezzalzouli came in for A. Ounahi , B. El Khannous came in for Ismael Saibari . The opening goal in the match came in the 55th minute by Brahim Diaz . The second goal came in the 74th minute by El Kaabi .
In the 90th minute Sofyan Amrabat got the yellow card for Morocco . Comoros coach Stefano Cusin made changes trying to come back into the game ; he took out B. Youssouf for Said Bakari . Akim Abdallah came in for Yannis Kari who got the yellow card in the first half . K. Maolida came in for Y. M'Cgangama , Y. Bourhane in for Z.Youssouf . K. M'Dahoma in for Kenan Toibibou . The match ended 2-0 in favour of the home team . Brahim Diaz voted as man of the match . The former Banyana Banyana defender who is a Supersport TV analyst Simphiwe Dludlu has praised the Moroccan striker El Kaabi for his great goal.
The former Bafana Bafana and Kaizer Chiefs coach Molefi Ntseki said on Lesedi FM " First of all congratulations to the Moroccan for collecting all three points . I hope their happy are happy for the two goals . But I think we all thought this was going to be a walk over for Morocco . Comoros didn't make it easy at all for Morocco . Yes , it was expected that Morocco will win . After Morocco opened the scoring it where we started to see Comoros going forward . In the first half they were avoiding to concede lot of goals in which that shouldn't be a way to go in this tournament " .