Diaz delight as Morocco advance to Cup of Nations quarter-finals
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RABAT, Jan 4 : Brahim Diaz scored his fourth goal for Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to put the hosts into the quarter-finals with a nervous 1-0 Round-of-16 victory over Tanzania in Rabat on Sunday.
Morocco dominated possession but Tanzania had opportunities too, and it took a fine strike from Diaz to book a place in the last eight and a meeting with the winners of Sunday’s second fixture between South Africa and Cameroon.
Captain Achraf Hakimi fed Diaz on the right side of the box on 64 minutes and the Real Madrid playmaker worked his way to the byline, before firing into the goal from a tight angle when most expected a cross.
Morocco wasted several other chances but were also fortunate that Tanzania were wasteful too, with Simon Msuva and Feisal Salum missing gilt-edged opportunities for the East Africans with the score at 0-0.
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It was a far from vintage performance from the home side, who have yet to click into top gear at the tournament but did enough to keep their campaign on track.
"The competition is hotting up and we faced our toughest opponent in this Tanzania team," Diaz said.
"Not everything worked, we know that, but fortunately we managed to secure our qualification (to the next round). Now, we are going back to work to be fully ready for the quarter-finals."
Tanzania had an early opportunity when Msuva had an open goal to head into, but he could only steer his effort well wide.
Morocco had the ball in the back of the net from Ismael Saibari’s header from a free kick but he was narrowly offside.
Ayoub El Kaabi then headed wide for the home side when he should have done better, and followed that up with another missed opportunity from Hakimi’s delightful cross.
Tanzania should have been ahead on 55 minutes as home goalkeeper Yassine Bounou could only parry a long-range shot and the ball fell to Salum, who blasted over the crossbar from 10 metres with the goal gaping.
Hakimi then crashed a free kick against the frame of the goal, before Morocco finally scored to settle the nerves in the Stade Moulay Abdellah.
(Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Clare Fallon)
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