FIFA World Cup 2022: How Morocco’s brave block top the group thanks to their victory against Canada – tactical analysis

Morocco made history, after finishing first in the group at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, being the first African team to do so since Nigeria in 1998.

At that time, they shared the group with Spain, Paraguay and Bulgaria. The Africans grabbed also surprising victories over Spain. However, they finished with 6 points, and Morocco did so with 7,

A 0-0 draw against world runners-up Croatia, followed by a 2-0 victory against a powerful Belgium and ended with a new 1-2 victory against Canada. The defensive solvency and threat on the counterattack added to the technical quality of its players, making the selection of Walid Regragui a special one.

Canada, for its part, after an extremely positive start in terms of performance, against Belgium, seemed that it was going to offer us much more, but it was not like that. A crushing defeat by 4-1 against Croatia would leave them out of the knockout phase and still to play this last game like this with certain changes in the squad of some starting players.

In this tactical analysis, we dive into the tactics of both teams in form of analysis and see how Walid Regragui made early history with Morocco in the World Cup.

Lineups

Canada deployed to 4-4-1-1 with Milan Borjan in goal; A back-four made up of Alistair Johnston, Steven Vitória, Kamal Miller and Sam Adekugbe. In midfield, the double pivot of Jonathan Osorio-Mark Kaye was flanked by wingers Tajon Buchanan and Alphonso Davies.

The forward was formed by Junior Hoilett and Cyle Larin.

Morocco went with their 4-1-4-1, with Yassine Bounou on goal; Noussair Mazraoui, Romain Saïss, Nayef Aguerd and Achraf Hakimi on the defence; Sofyan Amrabat as a lone midfielder, Abdelhamid Sabiri and Azzedine Ounahi as the advanced midfielders, ending the starting eleven with Sofiane Boufal, Hakim Ziyech and Youssef En-Nesyri up top.

Moroccos brave and rigid block, joined by rapid counter-attacks

Walid Regraguis Morocco executed a wonderful plan to finish first in a group and be one of the early surprises of the 2022 World Cup. As they have already shown in their two previous matches, defensive coordination is the key to their success.

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