Morocco fall just short of World Cup final glory

Morocco's defender #02 Achraf Hakimi (L) fights for the ball with France's forward #10 Kylian Mbappe during the Qatar 2022 World Cup semi-final football match against France Al-Bayt Stadium on December 14, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 15 December 2022
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Morocco fall just short of World Cup final glory

  • A 2-0 loss to reigning world champions France takes nothing away from remarkable semi-final performance and an incredible tournament for the Atlas Lions

Morocco’s dream of reaching the World Cup final finally came to an end on Wednesday with a 2-0 loss to France. But the magic of the team’s fantastic journey and their achievement in reaching the last four in Qatar will never be forgotten.

Whether for the tens of thousands who saw the game in person at Al-Bayt Stadium, the millions watching all around the Arab world or the billions tuning in on every continent, Morocco’s journey has surely been the story of the 2022 tournament.

They probably deserved more from this game than what they got and certainly deserved the outpouring of pride and appreciation from their fans at the final whistle

Their story is not necessarily over, as the success in Qatar could be just the start of a glorious new chapter for the Atlas Lions and lay the foundations for more to come.

But even if it does not spark further successes, what happened during the past three weeks, those amazing victories over Belgium, Canada, Spain and Portugal, will never be forgotten.

In the end, France, the defending champions, were just that little bit too clinical for Morocco and this sixth game for an injury-hit squad was just a little bit too much for them.

There’s still a play-off for third place against Croatia on Saturday to look forward to, which will be a fitting end to their competition as the two teams began their campaigns with a goalless draw in their opening clash. It will be one last chance for those magnificent fans, who really deserved a goal to cheer on Wednesday, to showcase their red shirts, voices and passion for a watching world.

Those fans ensured Morocco won the battle of the national anthems, as you might expect given that they outnumbered the French fans by at least 10 to one. It was a home game for Morocco but not even such great support could help to rally central defender Nayef Aguerd, who missed the win over Portugal with a thigh strain, and prevent him from having to withdraw from the crunch game during the warm-up, to be replaced by Achraf Dari.

Had the West Ham United defender been on the pitch, it is possible that France would not have taken the lead after just five minutes, when Theo Hernandez would not have half-volleyed the ball into the net past the despairing kick of Dari.

It was the first time in the tournament that Morocco’s defense had panicked and the AC Milan left-back popped up at the far post to punish the uncharacteristic confusion.

It was also the first time in the tournament that Morocco had fallen behind in a game. The French were always going to be a tough test but now Morocco really had a mountain to climb. The North Africans took a deep breath and got straight back into the action.

Soon after, Azzedine Ounahi forced a good save out of Hugo Lloris. After 17 minutes, however, Olivier Giroud ran past Romain Saiss and fired a fierce shot against the post. While there was relief, there was also dismay as the move showed that the skipper, thigh still strapped, had not fully recovered from a hamstring injury that saw him stretchered off during the win over Portugal. Morocco were left with both their usual center-backs and the signs were not good.

Yet while France continued to look dangerous on the counterattack, Morocco started to get on top and defender Jawad Al-Yamiq’s spectacular overhead kick drew a fine save from Lloris — not the first from the Spurs stopper — who pushed the ball onto the post. The game really was in the balance, with the Arab team coming back very strong from the early setback. If any evidence was needed, the players showed that they could never be counted out.

One of Morocco’s achievements is that they are now genuinely viewed as a formidable team and so there was little surprise when they started to get back into the game. The second half continued with the Reds on top of Les Bleus, who had to resort to some increasingly desperate defending, with Antoine Griezmann helping out at the back more and more.

For anyone watching with little knowledge of the two teams, it would have been impossible to tell who were the defending champions and who started the tournament as 200-to-1 outsiders.

Now Morocco were no longer outsiders but one of the big boys. But the goal that looked like it was surely going to come did not. As the 70th minute came and went, France started to look a little more comfortable.

Even when Morocco were on top, a second French goal was always a possibility and so it came, with a shot from close range from substitute Randal Kolo Muani. It came shortly after Abderrazak Hamdallah, also on the pitch for just moments, failed to pull the trigger after finding a little space in the area. The Al-Ittihad striker could have scored twice.

And that was that, as far as the semi-final was concerned but there is more to this story. Morocco had done the Arab world proud even before kick-off, and gave everything as they pushed the world champions hard, all the way. Their performance confirmed that talent, combined with hard work, organization and belief, can be a formidable combination.

There was disappointment at the final whistle but that also is a reflection of how far this team have come in Qatar.

There was also a lot of pride for a squad that had finally lost but was never beaten, and players who will head home with their heads held very high and their reputations higher still. Nobody will ever forget Morocco’s run to the last four.


Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

Updated 31 sec ago
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Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

ABU DHABI: Paul Waring hit the shot of his life to complete a career-low 11-under 61 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday and establish a five-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the European tour’s first playoff event.
The No. 229-ranked Englishman hit a draw with a 3-wood from about 260 yards to inside 4 feet at No. 18 and tapped in the birdie putt to move to 19-under par for the tournament.
The European tour confirmed to The Associated Press that it is the lowest 36-hole score to par in the tour’s history.
Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links and set a course record.
“I’ve got a nice lead at the moment but even before I tee off tomorrow, someone might have caught me,” said the 39-year-old Waring, whose sole win came at the Nordea Masters in 2018. “While I’m in the lead at the moment, and if we are rational about this, everyone is still going to fire a lot of
birdies in there.
“So if I’m going to be involved on Sunday afternoon, I’ve still got to keep going the way I am and I know that.”
First-round leader Tommy Fleetwood of England (68), Johannes Veerman of the United States (67) and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (65) and Thorbjorn Olesen (67) were tied for second place on 14 under.
Rory McIlroy hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker at the par-3 17th and made a triple bogey on the way to a second successive 67, leaving him nine strokes off the lead.
McIlroy, who can clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title with a win this week, was 7 under after 13 holes of his second round and feels he’ll need to produce something similar to reel in Waring and his closest chasers.
“I need the golf course to firm up a little bit and toughen up a little bit to have a chance,” McIlroy said. “There’s so many gettable holes out there.”


Zheng advances to WTA Finals championship match with semifinal win over Krejcikova

Updated 3 min 20 sec ago
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Zheng advances to WTA Finals championship match with semifinal win over Krejcikova

  • Zheng, 22, awaits top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or third-seeded Coco Gauff in the final on Saturday

RIYADH: Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen became the first tournament debutante to reach the championship match at the WTA Finals since 2021 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Barbora Krejcikova in Riyadh on Friday.

The seventh-seeded Zheng needed one hour and 40 minutes to overcome the Wimbledon champion in their semifinal encounter, firing nine aces along the way.
Zheng led 6-3, 3-0 before the eighth-seeded Krejcikova launched a comeback attempt but the Chinese star regained control of the match to make it two wins from two clashes with the Czech.
Zheng, 22, awaits top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or third-seeded Coco Gauff in the final on Saturday, as she bids to become the first player to win the WTA Finals on her maiden appearance since Ashleigh Barty in 2019.
“It feels so special because this is my first WTA Finals and right now I’m in the final, which is unbelievable. She’s a really good player, today we gave a good match,” said Zheng.
“It was tricky because at 3-0 I think I dropped my performance; suddenly my performance went down, and she played more free and I was suddenly 3-4 down. I gave so much control to myself to not panic too much. It shows I was mentally strong in that moment.”
Zheng was near untouchable on serve in the 40-minute opening set, dropping just one point behind her first delivery en route to a 6-3 lead.
The Olympic champion broke twice for a 3-0 advantage in the second set and looked on her way to a comfortable victory.
But Krejcikova had other ideas and she halted Zheng’s momentum by attacking her second serve to grab the next four games and inch ahead for the first time in the contest.
It became a tug of war but it was Zheng who found an opening, breaking in game 12 to put herself in the position to serve for the match.
The fight wasn’t over yet as Zheng had to save a break point and saw a first match point slip away before she wrapped up the win on her second chance when a Krejcikova forehand sailed wide.
Since the event’s inauguration in 1972, Zheng is only the second Asian player to reach the decider at the WTA Finals after Li Na pulled off that feat in 2013.


PSG to curb political slogans in wake of ‘Free Palestine’ banner

Updated 42 min 48 sec ago
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PSG to curb political slogans in wake of ‘Free Palestine’ banner

  • PSG promised to “guarantee the absence of political messages” in the stands
  • “The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message“

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain say they will make sure there is no repeat of a midweek unfurling by fans of a banner proclaiming “Free Palestine.”
The huge banner covered an entire section of the stadium at the Parc des Princes Wednesday night ahead of PSG’s defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid.
As well as the slogan “Free Palestine,” the banner showed a bloodstained Palestinian flag, a gesticulating man with a keffiyeh scarf covering all his face except his eyes, the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and a young boy wrapped in the Lebanese flag.
On Friday, after a meeting with the French football federation and government officials, PSG promised to “guarantee the absence of political messages” in the stands.
“A frank and constructive dialogue made it possible to identify solutions that PSG is committed to putting in place from the next match at the Parc des Princes,” a government spokesperson told AFP.
The banner, which was unfurled by the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP) hard-core fan group, was shown above another slogan which read: “War on the pitch but peace in the world.”
“The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message,” PSG said in a statement Wednesday evening.


Al-Hilal win again to pile pressure on Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq

Updated 08 November 2024
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Al-Hilal win again to pile pressure on Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq

  • Three fine goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom and Mohammed Al-Qahtani did the damage

RIYADH: Al-Hilal returned to the top of the Saudi Pro League on Friday, defeating Ettifaq 3-1 to rack up the pressure on under-fire coach Steven Gerrard.

Three fine goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom and Mohammed Al-Qahtani did the damage as the champions moved a point clear of Al-Ittihad, who won 2–0 at Al-Orubah on Thursday. 

The loss means that Ettifaq, who started the season with three straight wins, have taken just one point from the last six games in the league. It may mean a nervous international break for Gerrard, though the Liverpool legend will know that this was a battling performance from his players, who just did not quite have the quality when needed.

While Ettifaq tried to keep it tight at the back, it was not all one-way traffic. Moussa Dembele had a couple of opportunities when the ball simply wouldn’t fall for him and Karl Toko-Ekambi shot just over from the left side, though it could have been a mishit cross.

All know, however, that you have to be ruthless and clinical when playing the 19-time Saudi champions as wastefulness is almost always punished. It took the Blues some time to get going but they started to look ominous as half-time approached.

Just before the break, Al-Hilal should have taken the lead. This season Mitrovic has been lethal inside the area and the league’s leading scorer was picked out in space near the penalty spot; the stadium held its breath but former Fulham teammate Marek Rodak got his foot to the low shot and Malcom fired the rebound wide.

Mitrovic didn’t miss in added time. Renan Lodi picked up possession on the left and the Brazilian then bent a beautiful low cross behind the Ettifaq defense and Mitrovic could not miss from inside the six-yard box for his 11th of the season.

Ettifaq were still very much in the game and ten minutes after the restart, Toko-Ekambi stretched for a low cross, and while the Cameroonian did make contact and forced a good save from Yassine Bounou, it was a great chance.

The easterners thought they were going to regret that as Mitrovic had the ball in the net once more but his close-range header was ruled out for offside. There was a lengthy VAR review but it only confirmed the referee’s original decision.

The second goal did come eventually, and when it did — in the 81st minute — it was one to remember, for the home fans at least. Malcolm was running in from the left side of the area when he was found by a smart backheel from Abdullah Al-Hamdan. The Brazilian then took the ball past the goalkeeper with his first touch and then rolled the ball home.

It seemed that there was no coming back from that — Hilal are not a team that gives up two-goal leads — but as injury time started, Ettifaq were handed a lifeline in the shape of a penalty, and up stepped Vitinho to place the ball into the bottom corner.

Unfortunately for the visitors, it served just to wake up the hosts, who quickly restored their two-goal lead, though Gerrard angrily told officials that Mitrovic had committed a foul in the build-up. The home fans enjoyed the goal, however, as Malcom fed Mohammed Al-Qahtani who turned 360 degrees to make a little space in the area and then fired a low shot home.

It got even worse for Ettifaq as Abdullah Radif was sent off for shoving Ali Al-Bulaihi in the neck. There really was no coming back from that.

All in all, it was a perfect evening’s work for Al-Hilal, even if Saudi Arabia coach Herve Renard will be a little concerned that star man Salem Al-Dawsari seemed to pick up an injury — with the trip to Australia for a vital World Cup qualifier next Thursday.

Elsewhere, Al-Ahli bounced back from their defeat in the Jeddah Derby to defeat Al-Raed 2-0.


Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

Updated 08 November 2024
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Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

  • Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links
  • Rory McIlroy made a triple bogey on No. 17 in his second successive 67

ABU DHABI: Paul Waring hit the shot of his life to complete a career-low 11-under 61 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday and establish a five-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the European tour’s first playoff event.
The No. 229-ranked Englishman hit a draw with a 3-wood from about 260 yards to inside 4 feet at No. 18 and tapped in the birdie putt to move to 19-under par for the tournament.
The European tour confirmed to The Associated Press that it is the lowest 36-hole score to par in the tour’s history.
Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links and set a course record.
First-round leader Tommy Fleetwood of England (68), Johannes Veerman of the United States (67) and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (65) and Thorbjorn Olesen (67) were tied for second place on 14 under.
Rory McIlroy made a triple bogey on No. 17 in his second successive 67 and was nine strokes off the lead.
McIlroy can clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title with a win this week.