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Morocco reach quarter-finals as co-hosts Canada knocked out. Morocco are on another fairytale World Cup run - even if their latest win over Canada was less beauty and more beast. The north African side were not pretty in beating the 2026 co-hosts 3-0 in their round of 16 meeting in Houston.

Morocco won despite having just five efforts on goal – the fewest by a team who won a World Cup knockout match on record – and the first half was the first in World Cup history with more yellow cards than shots. But Morocco came through, and as the cliché goes, the mark of a great team is that they know how to win ugly. And now we must regard Morocco as a great team, and a real contender to win this World Cup.

They are not only unbeaten in this World Cup, but in their last 34 matches across all competitions. While that record does carry an asterisk as it includes the 2026 Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal – a win rewarded retroactively to Morocco and being challenged in court – it is impressive nevertheless.

Not since a 1-0 loss to Kenya in August 2025 in the African Nations Championship – a tournament solely for players in Africa's domestic leagues – have the Moroccan national team lost a match. And after the first 15 minutes in Texas, they never looked like losing this game.

Canada had two early chances, with Moroccan keeper Bono saving from Jonathan David and Tani Oluwaseyi, while the Atlas Lions did not have a touch in the opposition box for the first quarter of an hour for the second successive fixture. But once Morocco settled, they firmly took control of the game.

As Canada manager Jesse Marsch said afterwards: "They were bending a little bit but they didn't break." Morocco's four World Cup knockout wins is as many as Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana and Egypt combined.

In a meeting of two sides currently blessed by golden generations of talent, it was the Moroccans who shone. For Canada, injured Alphonso Davies was helpless on the bench as Morocco neutralised Stephen Eustaquio's dangerous passing and squeezed star striker Jonathan David out of the game.

Meanwhile, Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi, arguably the world's best right back, was a constant menace both on the ball and in the Canadian players' faces, while creative fulcrum Brahim Diaz claimed two assists. He now has four in World Cups – the most of any African player.

"The first half was very intense," Morocco manager Mohamed Ouahbi told his post-match media conference. "There were a few adjustments to be made at half-time. We were never safe from pressure. What matters is we didn't change our identity, we didn't change our game philosophy. There were lots of ideas being thrown around and we took the best one.

"We are playing the World Cup which means there will be difficult moments. What matters is when we are not at our best, we have to be resilient. We have to remember who we are playing for and what we are playing for." It was more than enough to take Morocco to a second successive men's World Cup quarter-final, progressing through five matches as they did in Qatar.

Morocco have now won four World Cup knockout matches - two in 2022, two in 2026 – which is as many as all other African nations combined. One more win, and they will have officially matched their showing at the 2022 World Cup, where they became the first African nation ever to reach the semi-finals.

So Morocco are contenders, although there remains a feeling they have not been tested to their full capabilities yet. They impressed in drawing with Brazil in their opening game, before contrasting wins over Scotland and Haiti – the first a hard-fought slog following a goal inside two minutes, the latter a frenetic 4-2 against free-wheeling, already eliminated foes.

In the round of 32, they were the better team against Netherlands but needed a stoppage-time header to avoid elimination. Then against Canada they were eventually comfortable, but it was not a high-quality win to assuage doubters ahead of a possible meeting with France in the last eight.

Morocco will play their 2026 quarter-final in Boston at 21.00 BST on Thursday, 9 July. "Morocco were just not at their very best, and there are tougher tests to come," said BBC 5 Live pundit Chris Sutton.

"They surprised me with their lethargy at the start. I don't know whether there was a bit of arrogance in dismissing the Canada team. Something was amiss with their performance. Morocco were never going to perform as badly in the second half. The longer the game went on, the stronger they became. They are devastating on the counterattack. But if France get through and Morocco perform like they did in the first half against a team like France, they will be crushed."

Yet there is no question that this Moroccan side have a better chance to become Africa's first ever world champions than any other side in history. Morocco's success is not overnight.

The one thing underpinning the North Africans' success has been long-term investment backed by the country's King Mohammed VI. An academy and $65m (£48.7m) training complex, both bearing his name, opened in 2009 and 2019 respectively and have helped the Atlas Lions establish themselves as Africa's top-ranked side.

"Everything that is happening right now in Moroccan football is thanks to Mohammed VI," Ouahbi said. "He has invested a lot in the last few years, especially this academy."

After reaching three out of four World Cups between 1986 and 1998, Morocco went 20 years without qualifying. This investment turned around their fortunes and allowed them to recruit players from the diaspora abroad – like Hakimi and Diaz, both born in Spain. It has given Morocco a competitiveness and belief which has become the blueprint for other African and Arabic nations, and it gives them a different aura to four years ago.

"It's not a surprise, we are no longer a surprise as of today," Ouahbi said. "When people talk about Morocco they talk about a real contender, a major footballing nation and it's a great source of pride. It's only the beginning and I hope we can continue to have similar World Cup runs for many years. We want to keep going, we don't want to stop."

While the run in Qatar was twinged with disbelief, their journey in North America has been infused with purpose. A football fairytale, this is not.

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