Sofiane Boufal shines as Morocco stuns Brazil with 2-1 victory
Mar 26, 2023
Tangier [Morocco], March 26 : Brazil ended up suffering a 2-1 defeat against Morocco in a football friendlies match on Sunday at Grand Stade de Tanger.
A feeling of nostalgia crept into the Brazil team as once again they suffered defeat with Neymar being forced to watch from the sidelines due to an injury.
The Moroccan team made their intentions clear from the beginning of the game. Their attacking intent was defined by the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Youssef En-Nesyri and Sofiane Boufal. While Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi and Romain Saiss held on to the defensive front.
But the Brazilian team was not ready to go down so easily. They switched the gears quickly and started to put some pressure on the Moroccan defence. But, the hosts managed to keep things at a stalemate successfully for the first half an hour of the game.
Their confidence started to convert into overconfidence as Moroccan goalkeeper Bounou started to come out of his box to play with fire with the ball in his feet. For the first time, he was spared for his mistake. But the second time he almost ended up burning his fingers as he came out of his box to clear the ball and almost ended up giving the visitors a lead. His mistimed clearance attempt almost ended up in the back of the net. However, Vinicius Junior was deemed offside during the build-up process.
Moments later Morocco punished Brazil for failing to convert the opportunities that came their way. Sofiane Boufal scored the opening goal with a quick spin and shoot trick to throw Brazilian defenders and goalkeeper off guard.
The game started to open up as both teams went after each other, battling for possession, trying to convert half chances.
Casemiro made most of the opportunity as he brought the game back on level terms with his incredible precision right from the outside of the box in the 67th minute of the game.
One single moment allowed Brazil to launch a comeback. However, their efforts went in vain as Abdelhamid Sabiri came off the bench to clinch and seal the victory for the hosts.
