FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts, June 19 : Morocco’s performance in their 1-0 World Cup victory over Scotland on Friday was better than the North Africans\u2019 impressive showing in their draw with Brazil last week, according to coach Mohamed Ouahbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His prognosis came as Ismael Saibari scored the quickest goal of the 2026 tournament so far after 71 seconds to give Morocco a perfect start before they held off a late Scotland surge for a deserved 1-0 win to reach four points in Group C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe controlled the whole game and, in terms of efficiency, I saw it as actually better than the first game,\u201d said Ouahbi, whose side caught the eye in their opening 1-1 draw versus Brazil in New York\/New Jersey last weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI see it as progress compared to the first game. So in the end, we are happy with the result; we wanted three points, and we got them. That was the main objective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe we controlled the game, but when you don\u2019t score a second goal, obviously, we have to defend because Scotland had a very intense approach with very long balls. But I couldn\u2019t be happier with the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the clash was played against a backdrop of jeers for Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi, hours after a French appeals court confirmed that he will stand trial in a rape case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 27-year-old Hakimi, who plays his club football for European champions Paris St Germain, denies the allegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ouahbi sought to deflect questions about what impact the case might have on Hakimi and the rest of the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHakimi was extraordinary. He had a very strong game, so we\u2019re very relaxed, and he\u2019s especially relaxed,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morocco\u2019s place in the next round is not mathematically certain, so Ouahbi said he would resist any temptation to rest players for their last group game against Haiti in Atlanta on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe objective will be to win the game and hopefully be number one in the group. So I\u2019m going to field the best team possible, based on how physically ready the players are,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts, June 19 : Morocco’s performance in their 1-0 World Cup victory over Scotland on Friday was better than the North Africans\u2019 impressive showing in their draw with Brazil last week, according to coach Mohamed Ouahbi. His prognosis came as Ismael Saibari scored the quickest goal of the 2026 tournament so far after 71 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417940,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417939\/revisions\/417940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}