Morocco fight back past Haiti to reach the World Cup last 32

Morocco needed the full 90 minutes and a good chunk of nerve to get there, but a 4-2 win over Haiti in Atlanta on June 24 booked their place in the World Cup’s last 32. The Atlas Lions trailed twice, looked rattled by a Haiti side ranked well below them, and only pulled clear with two goals in the closing stretch.

It was not the procession Walid Regragui’s team might have expected against the group’s bottom side. Haiti, back at a World Cup for the first time since 1974, refused to sit in, and for an hour they had the favourites chasing the game.

Haiti land the early blows

The first jolt came in the 10th minute. Lenny Joseph got across his marker and flicked at a cross, and the ball looped in off Yassine Bounou for an own goal. It went into the books against the Morocco keeper rather than to Joseph, but it still gave Haiti the lead and their first goal at a World Cup in 52 years.

Morocco took until the 39th minute to respond, Achraf Hakimi finishing off a move he had helped start. The equaliser should have settled them. Instead Haiti went straight back in front four minutes later through Wilson Isidor, the Sunderland forward collecting the ball outside the box and arrowing it into the top corner. That strike carried real weight: Isidor became the first Haiti player to score at a World Cup since Emmanuel Sanon’s two goals at the 1974 finals.

Ismael Saibari spared Morocco before the interval. With first-half stoppage time ticking down, Hakimi swung in a cross from the right and Saibari met it cleanly to make it 2-2 at the break. Two of the more open 45 minutes of the tournament had produced four goals and a contest nobody saw coming.

Rahimi turns the screw late

The second half was tighter, both sides aware of what a single goal would mean. Morocco carried the greater threat but could not find a way through until the 78th minute, when Soufiane Rahimi controlled a flicked-on corner, turned, and fired past Johnny Placide. This time the lead held.

Rahimi then turned provider in the 89th minute, releasing Gessime Yassine to put the result beyond doubt. The finish was Yassine’s first goal for his country, and it made the final 4-2 read more comfortably than the 80 minutes that preceded it.

Second place, and a date in Monterrey

The win took Morocco to seven points, enough for second in Group C behind Brazil, who topped the section after their own 3-0 win over Scotland. The two finished level on points, with Brazil taking top spot. Morocco’s reward is a last-32 tie against the Group F winners at Estadio Monterrey on June 29.

For Haiti, it was the end of the road. They finished bottom with no points, but they leave having twice led one of the competition’s stronger sides and having put a Haiti name back on a World Cup scoresheet for the first time in half a century. Isidor will not forget the night, even in defeat.

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