FIFA World Cup : Belgium vs Morocco

 Belgium, the dark horses in the world cup & certainly a title contender, were expected to steamroll against minnows Morocco in a Group F match, but the world of football encountered a major upset, as Morocco stunned the Red Devils 2-0 to throw a serious spanner in the scheme of things for this group. They have been undefeated in their last three World Cup games, & are a hard nut to crack. With this facile win, they now have a great chance to enter the round of 16, having already drawn with Croatia & now have a match against Canada. The North Africans should be fully credited for conjuring this victory, as they were defensively resolute & took their chances to score with full intent. 

Mitchy Batshuayi went close to scoring for the Red Devils early on, but the Moroccan keeper, Monir Kajoui, a surprise last minute inclusion ahead of  Yassine Bounou, brought out a fabulous save to set the tone of the game. At the other end, Thibaut Courtois, Belgian keeper was untroubled for the major part of the 1st half, until when Hakim Ziyech curled in a superb free kick to beat the lanky keeper, only to be disallowed by a VAR check - certainly a very tight offside decision, which could've gone the other way. 

2nd half did not raise the bar for the Belgians as they were strangely subdued throughout & Morocco opened their World Cup account in the 73rd minute, when substitute Sabiri, from a similar free kick, smartly put the ball into the net past Courtois to go one up. Stunned by this unexpected results, De Bruyne tried to push his Belgian team mates for an equaliser, but the stubborn Moroccan defense held well. In the injury time, keeper Munir sent in a huge goal kick into the Belgian half where Ziyech received the ball & wriggled right into the box & squared to Aboukhal, whose rasping drive fires into the roof of the net, as the Atlas Lions celebrate a resounding upset victory. 

Belgium now face a uphill task to qualify with their last game against Croatia, while Morocco, sitting at the top of the group for now will have to endure Canada next week. It will be interesting to see the results of the match between Croatia & Canada later in the evening.