Morocco will play USA in the quarter-final of the men’s tournament at the Paris-2024 Olympics on Friday at 2 pm at Paris’ “Parc des Princes Stadium”.
With six points, Morocco topped the group stage with 2 wins against Argentina 2-1, and Iraq 3-0, and one defeat to Ukraine 2-1.
In their last game at the group stage, the Atlas Cubs trashed Iraq 3-0 on Wednesday, thanks to goals from Amir Richardson (19th minute), Soufiane Rahimi (28th minute), and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli (36th minute).
A victory will lead the Moroccan team to the semi-finals of the Olympic Games for the first time in its history, to meet the winner from the Spain-Japan game.
Morocco’s national team supporters, who are eager to attend this historic match, have expressed anger and frustration after they found out that tickets are sold out for Friday’s game.
The supporters said that it is impossible to find tickets to watch the game as Morocco’s previous matches attracted too many new fans and attention from other nations.
Some supporters who had previously acquired match tickets used the “black market” to resale them on websites other than the official platform, at inflated rates that reached 400 euros (about 4,000 MAD) each.
In this competition, Moroccan football star Soufiane Rahimi broke the world record for the number of goals in the Olympic games since 1972 after scoring four goals in three successive games.
Rahimi scored the Moroccan national team’s second goal against Iraq in the 28th minute, in the decisive match to advance to the quarter-final of the men’s tournament.
The player scored a brace against Argentina in the opening match and came back to score Morocco’s only goal against Ukraine, bringing his tally of goals in this event to four, making him the top scorer.
The US squad qualified for the quarterfinals after defeating Guinea 3-0 and finishing second in Group A with 6 points, behind France, which crushed New Zealand 3-0.