Key events
65 min: Morocco look beauteous comfy astatine the moment. Bono hasn’t had thing to bash since the restart. Meanwhile my workfellow Beau Dure adds much colour to this all-action thriller: “With the changeable disconnected the escaped kick, Morocco improved their xG from 0.02 to 0.09.”
63 min: … and possibly with that successful mind, Oluwaseyi is replaced by Larin. Morocco meantime marque a treble change, swapping retired El Khannouss and Bouaddi for Amrabat and Talbi.
62 min: Oluwaseyi is penalised for clipping Bouaddi. It’s a spot soft, truthful helium rants astatine the referee. He’s already connected a booking, truthful wants to ticker himself.
60 min: Buchanan bounds aft a shot down the inside-right channel. He’s shoved successful the backmost by Halhal and falls implicit successful the box, but there’s nary determination implicit a punishment due to the fact that the emblem goes up for offside. There didn’t look overmuch successful the offside decision; there’s a spot much to beryllium said astir the imaginable penalty, due to the fact that Halhal was taking an atrocious risk. But we determination on.
59 min: The corner’s deed long, but De Fougerolles can’t get immoderate powerfulness connected a header astatine the acold post.
58 min: Ahmed chases aft a agelong walk down the near and wins a corner. Eustaquio to take.
56 min: Hakimi’s country comes backmost to him, and past helium flays a chaotic 2nd effort astatine a transverse implicit everyone’s caput and retired for a extremity kick. “Maybe I’m imbuing the footballers connected the transportation with much quality than they really have, but if a referee is being a spot whistle and card-happy, past surely they should dial down the cynical/professional fouls to guarantee they don’t get penalised?” wonders Andy (not that one) Flintoff.
55 min: … truthful yes, they prime it up again, and Rahini bursts down the close to triumph a country disconnected Buchanan.
54 min: Morocco don’t person to unit it now, truthful they driblet the gait a spot and commencement passing it astir the backmost again. Whether that’s specified a bully idea, fixed the grounds of the archetypal half, and what happened erstwhile they picked it up aft the break, is simply a moot point.
52 min: That was a fantastic acceptable piece. Cut backmost crisply by Hakimi, and dispatched calmly, albeit done a thicket of legs successful a crowded box, by Ounahi. A genuine infinitesimal of prime to interruption the deadlock. The Canada players who surrounded the referee re that Ounahi tug connected Ahmed mightiness person thing to accidental astir it, though.
GOAL! Canada 0-1 Morocco (Ounahi 50)
The escaped kick, adjacent the close manus country flag, is pulled backmost by Hakimi to Ounahi, who races successful and meets the shot conscionable wrong the D, passing the shot astatine precocious velocity into the bottommost right! Great escaped kick, and a beauteous decorativeness … by a subordinate who could person picked up a 2nd yellowish moments before.
49 min: … the ball’s worked near to right. It’s crossed for De Fougerolles, who slices a chaotic volley implicit the bar. And past De Fougerolles is successful enactment again up the different end, sliding successful precocious connected Rahimi arsenic the Moroccan sub bombs down the right. Another booking. This isn’t going to extremity up 11 v 11.
48 min: Ounahi gives the shot distant past pulls Ahmed back. A gentle tug, but he’s already connected a yellow. Canada support going, though, and Oluwaseyi enters the box, winning a corner. From which …
47 min: The aboriginal signs suggest Morocco person been fixed the what-for during the break, and told to instrumentality it up a mates of notches.
Morocco get the 2nd fractional started. No changes during the break.
Half-time postbag. “Did the Morocco squad that played Brazil get rested for today’s game?” – Gavin O’Reilly
“These teams are truthful bad, can’t we destruct them some and bring backmost successful Cabo Verde?” – Phil Collis
“This lucifer is tactically genius from Canada. You’re truthful antagonistic astir the match. Canada is dominating the #7 squad successful the world. Yes dominating them, I got nary occupation saying that. They haven’t had a sniff” – Craig Rempel
“Give recognition to Canada’s antiaircraft organization! They are crisp with their signifier and strategical press. It mightiness not beryllium a crackin’ match, but you could astatine slightest springiness immoderate plaudits wherever they are due!” – Reuben Koole
“A fewer minutes agone the commentator connected Norwegian telly told america that determination had been 5 yellowish cards. But the Norwegian for yellowish (‘gul’) sounds precise akin to ‘jul’, the Norwegian for Christmas. So possibly Mr Oliver is penning ‘seasons greetings’ connected them aft waving them about” – Bob O’Hara
“Bayern Munchen. Borussia Dortmund. Even my ain beloved Brighton and Hove Albion. Let’s not unreal Europeans are superior here” – Simon Webb
“I got distracted looking up the root of ‘to springiness idiosyncratic gyp’. The fashionable mentation is that it comes from ‘gee up’ (eg a horse) due to the fact that you bushed a equine to gee it up. So present you know” – Harry Desmond
HALF TIME: Canada 0-0 Morocco
Canada person stifled Morocco with their press, and Oluwaseyi carved retired a accidental for himself. But different it’s been slim pickings, and not overmuch of a spectacle. Canada volition beryllium miles happier, though.
45 min +6: Yet different yellowish card, this clip to El Khannouss for moving slap-bang into De Fougerolles. That’s 4 Moroccans walking the disciplinary tightrope now.
45 min +4: Johnson throws agelong down the close touchline and astir releases Oluwaseyi, but the striker can’t jink past Mazraoui with Morocco different airy astatine the back.
45 min +2: We’re already a 3rd of the mode into six further first-half minutes.
45 min: … and present it’s a booking for Ounahi, who clips Ahmed. It’s not precisely been a soiled game, that insignificant brouhaha started by Hakimi and Laryea apart. Time to resurrect Kevin Keegan’s large punctuation connected ITV during the 1994 World Cup: “It’s similar a toaster, the ref’s garment pocket. Every clip there’s a tackle, up pops a yellowish card.”
44 min: Some much HOT MICHAEL OLIVER ACTION arsenic David is booked for cynically but besides pointlessly hauling backmost Diaz, who was successful flight, but miles from the Canada goal.
43 min: Morocco bash their calming-things-down spot again. Pass, pass, walk astir the back. The bulk of the assemblage springiness them a spot of gyp arsenic a result.
41 min: Oliver books some Hakimi and Laryea. The erstwhile seemed much astatine responsibility than the latter, pushing his antheral successful the backmost unnecessarily. Laryea came backmost astatine him, which is erstwhile everything got heated … but not that heated. Still, we request thing to spark this crippled into life. The accustomed think-of-the-kids caveats apply, but a bench-emptying brawl would person done it.
39 min: Hakimi and Laryea quadrate up implicit precise little. Then everyone other piles in, and things nearly descend to WAHEY! level. We don’t similar to spot it, but we do. The referee Michael Oliver comes crossed to enactment a halt to the nonsense, the aged spoilsport.
37 min: Another agelong Johnston throw-in that comes to nothing. This is successful information of turning into a spot of a non-event. Meanwhile here’s Jeff Necessary from North Carolina: “Having observed my lad coming up done Texas schools for 10 years, the kids were heavy indoctrinated that Texans are amended than anyone other and Texas is amended than anyplace other (both of which sounded to maine similar trying to person themselves first). So with that mindset, calling the squad the Texans fits close in.” We should astir apt halt this treatment now, conscionable successful lawsuit we accidentally spark a 2nd US civilian war. And connected this time of each days, too, for shame.
35 min: Mazraoui’s effort astatine a clearing header skims disconnected the apical of his caput and retired for a corner. The acceptable portion leads to immoderate messy nonsense, and De Fougerolles falls implicit the stricken Bouaddi. No assertion for a penalty, successful information it’s a escaped footwear to Morocco.
34 min: Eustaquio floats a diagonal walk successful from the left, hoping to find Buchanan successful the Morocco box. But Morocco clear.
32 min: Nothing overmuch going on. The assemblage entertain themselves with a Viking Row, the Mexican Wave de nos jours.
30 min: Johnston flings agelong into the Morocco country from the right. De Fougerolles competes excessively energetically and the whistle goes. Fair to accidental this lucifer hasn’t rather taken disconnected yet.
29 min: Play restarts, and Morocco’s replacement striker Rahimi has a excavation from agelong range. That’s casual for Crepeau. “The Texans were primitively going to beryllium called the Toros - meaning ‘bull’ successful Spanish,” begins Ray successful Houston. “The squad logo is simply a bull and the squad mascot is an anthropomorphic bull called ‘Toro’ (who looks somewhat similar a minotaur). So they were walking the casual way to calling the squad the Toros. And past they stepped disconnected the way into a heap of bullshit and called the squad the ‘Texans’. The Houston Toros is an empirically bully name.”
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