Morocco finished in first place in F and faced Spain who finished in second place in Group E. This was the round-of-16 match played at Education City Stadium on 6 December 2022 Tuesday at 18:00 local Qatar time.
Morocco vs Spain Match Results
Morocco won the match against Spain in a penalty shootout.
Morocco vs Spain Match Highlights
Morocco vs Spain Penalty Shootout
Morocco vs Spain Match First Half
Spain started the match completely and took possession of the ball against Morocco. Though they had possession of the ball but not domination in the game. Because they were just playing a passing game, they lacked a number 9 player in the team who will be able to score a goal against the opponent. They were literally searching for a passing option even in the attacking third and fourth near the penalty area. Even they did not try for a long corner kick when they won it.
You can see in the stats above, even with 69% of the possession Spain succeeded to take only one shot that too was not on target. And with just 31% ball possession Morocco took 3 shots from which 1 was on target.
Morocco vs Spain Match Stats Complete
In the second half, the story was the same and I am really disappointed with the 2010 World Cup winner Spain for how they played in this tournament. I agree that possession-based football gives you opportunities to score goals but if you are so under-confident then opponents will beat you even if you have 83% of the ball’s possession, this is what we saw against Japan.
You can see in the finals stats Spain had 77% ball possession and they took 12 shots in the second half from which only 1 shot was on target, while Morocco took 3 more shots of which one was on target. Match resulted in a draw in the first 90′ and then 30 minutes of extra time was added and the same story was repeated which we have already seen in the first and second halves. Spain has the possession and Morocco was going for a counter-attack but this match was with not result in extra time also and went for penalties.
Morocco started the penalties and scored 3 goals in Spain’s net and Spain failed to score a goal in a penalty shootout.
Man of the match Morocco vs Spain Match
Yassine Bounou is the man of the match in the Morocco vs Spain Match.
Yassine Bounou saved all the 3 penalties shooted by Spain’s players and promoted Morocco to the quarter-finals of the tournament. He deserves every award in this match.
Why did Morocco win against Spain?
Morocco’s coach knew the playing style of Spain and they knew that they won’t be getting more opportunities to score nor they will be getting the ball’s possession, so they need to attack only on the counter when Spain will be misplacing the ball. And they must have realized that Spain lacks the goal-scoring ability though Spain beat Costa Rica 7-0, still in their further match we have seen that Spain lacks the number 9 player in their squad. So, Morocco was comfortable with its defensive strategy and it succeeded in its plan.
But the simple answer to this question of why did Morocco win against Spain is Yassine Bounou and his brilliant saves in a penalty shootout.
Why did Spain Lose against Morocco?
I directly blame Luis Enrike for Spain’s loss against Morocco. He built a team combining both Barcelona and Real Madrid squads but his team was unable to score a goal in 2 consecutive matches in the world cup despite ball possession of nearly 80%. This is a poor strategy from the Senior coach. Spain should create the ability to convert opportunities and they need to create confidence to take a shot. Surprisingly Span took only one shot in the first half against Morocco despite 77% of the ball’s possession. This is disgusting from one of the best teams in the world, and more surprisingly Spain shot on target after 120 minutes of playing on the ground was only 1.
Final Verdict
Finally an African team Morocco qualified for the quarter-finals in the FIFA world cup 2022 and will face Portugal in this knockout match.
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Who is the Man of the match in Morocco vs Spain Match?
Yassine Bounou is the man of the match in the Morocco vs Spain Match.
