The Atlas Lions of Morocco on Sunday night devoured the Amajimbos of South Africa 2-0 in the second match of the Group B first round matches.
Moroccan Captain, Ait Boudial stepped forward to score a brilliant penalty in the 73rd minute after a South African defender, though unintentionally, handled the ball in the box.
As the South African were hoping to share honors for the night, a vital mistake occurred when their Goalkeeper collided with his defender in a lack of communication moment and lurking Moroccan Striker, Adam Hanin toed the ball into an empty net at 83rd minute to dash the hopes of the South Africans in their first ever encounter.
By that performance, Morocco tops Group B after Nigeria’s Golden Eaglet had beaten Zambia by a lone goal.
Both sides played totally physical football so the foul calls were 19-14 against Morocco; yellow cards were 1-1; but South Africa dominated the match through ball possession of 58-42% and the passes which were 432 for South Africa with 73% accuracy and 312 passes for Morocco with 59% accuracy a warning to Golden Eaglets. Morocco could only release 9 shots 4 of which were on target meaning Nigeria’s defence must be agile, that defence looks like the strength of Nigeria Nduka Ugbade being a defender in his playing days. South Africa got 10 shots but only one was on target.
Nigeria will play Morocco on Wednesday at 1700 hours and South Africa will play against Zambia at 2000 hours in second round matches of Group B.
Tomorrow Monday, Group C will take the stage with lions of Cameroun versus South Sudan at 1700 hours before Mali will battle Burkina Faso at 2000 hours. The Match between Cameroon and South Sudan will however not take place because CAF had dismissed Sudan as five of her players failed the MRI test which is a medical device for bone age determination in Sports.
On Tuesday, the second round matches of Group A will be played with hosts Algeria trading tackles with Senegal in a superiority contest at 1700 hours after which Congo DR will meet Somalia at 2000 hours.
By Eniola Olatunji
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