Morocco beat Canada 3–0 to reach back-to-back World Cup quarterfinals
Azzedine Ounahi scored twice and a late Soufiane Rahimi goal sealed it, as Morocco became the first African nation to reach consecutive World Cup quarterfinals.
Canada matched Morocco for large spells of a bright opening, with Promise Oluwaseyi denied by a smart first-half save from Yassine Bounou after breaking clear of the Moroccan back line. But the Atlas Lions' quality on the counterattack eventually told, and by the final whistle their 3–0 win felt comfortable.
The breakthrough came in the 50th minute, Azzedine Ounahi meeting a knockdown from an Achraf Hakimi free-kick to give Morocco the lead. Ounahi struck again in the 82nd minute, latching onto a defence-splitting pass from substitute Brahim Díaz to make it 2–0, before Díaz turned provider again in stoppage time, teeing up Soufiane Rahimi to add a third.
Díaz's assist for Rahimi's goal was his fourth of the tournament, an African-record haul for a single World Cup, underlining how central the Barcelona forward has become to Morocco's attacking play off the bench. Hakimi, too, continued his influential tournament, adding a fourth-round-of-16 goal contribution from a dead-ball situation.
Canada's exit ends a first World Cup knockout run since 1986 in respectable fashion, with Oluwaseyi's early chance the closest they came to troubling the scoreline. For Morocco, the win extends a golden run that began with their run to the semifinals in Qatar in 2022 — they are now the first African nation to reach the quarterfinals in consecutive World Cups.
Morocco advance to face France in the quarterfinals on July 9 in Boston, a rematch of their 2022 semifinal meeting.