Key Points
- Morocco beat Canada 3-0 in the World Cup Round of 16 on July 4 in Houston.
- Azzedine Ounahi scored twice (50', 82'); Soufiane Rahimi added a stoppage-time goal.
- Morocco reach the quarterfinals for a second straight World Cup.
- Canada's co-host run ends after its first-ever World Cup knockout appearance.
Canada's dream World Cup ended on Saturday. The co-hosts lost 3-0 to Morocco in the Round of 16 at Houston Stadium, a result that flattered neither the scoreline's finality nor how competitive the first half had been, and sent the Atlas Lions into the quarterfinals.
The game turned right after the break. Azzedine Ounahi opened the scoring in the 50th minute, set up by Achraf Hakimi, then sealed it with a strike off a counter-attack in the 82nd. Soufiane Rahimi added a third deep in stoppage time to make the margin look emphatic. Morocco now meet the winner of France and Paraguay in the quarterfinals on July 9 in New England.
For Canada, the exit stings, but the tournament was a landmark. This was the deepest run in the program's history — a side that won its first-ever men's World Cup match 6-0 over Qatar and then edged South Africa on a stoppage-time Stephen Eustáquio goal to reach its first knockout round on home soil. Against a genuine contender, the ceiling showed: Canada created enough early to believe, then had no answer once Morocco's quality tilted the game.
The read is really about Morocco. Reaching the quarterfinals a second straight World Cup — after the penalty win over the Netherlands that opened this knockout run — makes them the first African team to go this deep in back-to-back tournaments, extending the breakthrough of their 2022 semifinal. In an expanded World Cup built to reward newcomers, Morocco have knocked out the Netherlands and now the co-hosts, and sit a win away from matching that 2022 run — no longer a surprise but a fixture in the late rounds.
Source: NBC Sports, ESPN.
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