By Morocco’s Olympic Football Team Faces Setback Against Ukraine
In a surprising turn of events, Achraf Hakimi expressed his feelings following Morocco’s loss to Ukraine in their second match of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games football tournament. Held on Saturday, the match concluded with a 2-1 defeat for the Moroccan team.
Having kicked off their campaign with an impressive 2-1 victory against Argentina on Wednesday, Morocco failed to capitalize on their momentum. A win against Ukraine would have secured their spot in the quarterfinals, allowing them to approach their last group stage fixture against Iraq more comfortably and possibly rest key players. However, the team found themselves trailing after Ukraine scored in the 22nd minute. Morocco managed to equalize with a penalty in the 64th minute during a dominant phase of the game but conceded a goal in the 98th minute, despite having a numerical advantage following Salyuk’s red card.
The late goal stunned the Olympic Lions, overshadowing their second-half efforts and particular the equalizing penalty converted by Soufiane Rahimi. Substitute El Mehdi Maouhoub saw his potential match-winning effort blocked by Ukrainian goalkeeper Feysun in the dying moments of the game, stretching the stoppage time to 10 minutes, which eventually led to Ukraine’s decisive strike.
Captain Achraf Hakimi shared his disappointment in the mixed zone post-match, commenting, “I don’t have many explanations. We lacked experience and finishing in our actions. We created many chances that we should have capitalized on. It’s a high-level tournament. When you have that many opportunities, you need to score one or two goals; otherwise, you get punished, which is what happened today,” he lamented to Arryadia.
Currently positioned third in Group B, where all teams have 3 points, the Moroccan team now faces a must-win situation in their upcoming match against Iraq on Tuesday to advance to the quarterfinals.
