HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Azzedine Ounahi scored twice to lead Morocco to a 3-0 win over Canada in the World Cup round of 16 Saturday to make the country the first African nation to reach the quarterfinals more than once.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Morocco\u2019s second straight appearance in the quarterfinals after becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals in 2022.<\/p>\n
Neither team was able to break through until Ounahi took a free kick from Achraf Hakimi and made a right-footed shot through traffic from outside the box to the bottom right corner to put Morocco on top 1-0 in the 50th minute.<\/p>\n
Ounahi made it 2-0 on a right-footed shot from the middle of the box off a pass from Brahim D\u00edaz in the 82nd minute.<\/p>\n
Soufiane Rahimi added a goal in the final minute of stoppage time.<\/p>\n
Morocco advances to face the winner of Saturday\u2019s Paraguay-France match on Thursday at Boston Stadium.<\/p>\n
The loss ends a historic run for World Cup co-host Canada, which won its first-ever knockout round with a 1-0 victory over South Africa to reach Saturday\u2019s match. The country was playing in the World Cup for just the third time and the run enchanted a nation that is normally far more interested in hockey than the pitch.<\/p>\n
Morocco, which is ranked sixth in the FIFA rankings, dispatched the Netherlands in a penalty shootout to reach the round of 16 and send the country to its earliest World Cup exit.<\/p>\n
Canada had a couple of chances to score late. Jonathan David had a free kick from outside the box in the 78th minute, but his shot sailed over the crossbar.<\/p>\n
Just after that Tajon Buchanan\u2019s shot from about 30 yards was stopped with a diving save from goalkeeper Yassine Bounou. Bounou, who was born in Canada to Moroccan parents, had three saves to help Morocco to the win.<\/p>\n
This game was a rematch from the last World Cup when Morocco beat Canada 2-1 in the group stage in a tournament in which Morocco finished fourth.<\/p>\n
It was an extremely physical match with eight yellow cards being issued. Both teams received four.<\/p>\n
Hakimi and Canada\u2019s Richie Laryea received yellow cards in the 40th minute. Hakimi shoved Laryea to the ground and then Laryea pushed him and a minor scuffle ensued.<\/p>\n
Morocco midfielder Ismael Saibari left with an injury in the 22nd minute.<\/p>\n
See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Azzedine Ounahi scored twice to lead Morocco to a 3-0 win over Canada in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128294,128293,128290,18790,128287,128288,128292,23681,202,196,88710,42094,942,88711,128289,82,84,83,128291],"class_list":["post-361281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-a-ounahi","tag-achraf-hakimi","tag-bono","tag-canada","tag-canada-morocco-world-cup-score","tag-ismael-saibari","tag-jonathan-david","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32554-ap-online-soccer-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-product-42059-world-cup-text","tag-richie-laryea","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-tajon-buchanan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}