Key events
Ahead of the Atlas Lions’ opener against Brazil, Leander Schaerlaeckens spoke to Morocco fans who traveled to this World Cup to watch their team. Some spent above the national wage to attend; others spoke of how they are ready for their country to host the “best World Cup in history” in 2030. (They also all agreed that Morocco are the rightful African champions.)
Where do things stand in Group C?
If Morocco draw, they are guaranteed a top-two finish in Group C. To top the group, they would need to beat Haiti and then hope Scotland can either draw or beat Brazil.
If Brazil beat Scotland in Miami, Morocco will need to beat Haiti by Brazil’s margin of victory in that game plus three to have a shot at leapfrogging Brazil to first.
Scotland would progress with a win against Brazil. A draw would at best leave them behind Morocco on head-to-head but four points with a level goal difference would mean a good chance of qualifying in third, albeit teams in later-finishing groups would know what they had to beat.
The Group C winner will face the Group F runner-up (likely Japan or the Netherlands) in Houston on 29 June. The Group C runner-up will face the Group F winner (likely the Netherlands or Japan) in Monterrey on 29 June.
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Preamble
Hello, everyone! Welcome to an eventful four hours for Group C.
You’ve got me for the first-ever meeting between Morocco, 2022 World Cup semi-finalists and technical African champions, and Haiti, who are closing out just their second-ever appearance on football’s biggest stage. A mere 700mi down Interstate 75 (in America, that’s mere!) Scotland and Brazil are readying for a simultaneous kick-off in their group-stage finale Miami. Haiti have already been eliminated, but the other three teams still have knockout-stage hopes to play for.
Morocco are second in the group, trailing Brazil on goal difference, with Scotland well situated to get one of the eight third-place spots. A draw or a win in Atlanta would ensure the Atlas Lions reach the knockout stage; an emphatic win plus some help from Scotland in Miami could see them go top of the group.
On paper, Morocco are considerable favourites. They impressed in their opening 1-1 draw with Brazil, but they left some to be desired when winning by just a mere goal against Scotland and have yet to put together a complete 90-minute performance. Both of their goals at this tournament have come from PSV Eindhoven’s Ismael Saibari. With his goal against Scotland, he became the second African player (after Mohamed Salah) to score in his first two World Cup games. Morocco aren’t a high-scoring team, but a solid output today certainly would send them into the last 32 with some more momentum.
Haiti, already eliminated from the knockout stage after two defeats, are mostly playing for pride, but there are a few milestones they could achieve in today’s match. Their only previous World Cup appearance came in 1974, where they lost all three games and conceded 14 goals but scored twice. A goal today would be their first at this World Cup. A point today would be their first ever at a World Cup.
I’ll be back soon with team news and more. In the meantime, you can follow Bosnia and Herzegovina v Qatar and Switzerland v Canada and email any thoughts to ella.brockway@theguardian.com.
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