BRISBANE: Anissa Lahmari’s winner powered World Cup debutants Morocco past Colombia 1-0 on Thursday and into the last 16 at the expense of two-time champions Germany.
Morocco’s upset in Perth lifted them to six points and they finished runners-up in Group H to Colombia on goal difference.
Germany were eliminated after being held to a 1-1 draw with South Korea in Brisbane.
Colombia will play Jamaica in the round of 16, while Morocco face France.
It was a fairytale result for Morocco, who have rebounded from a humiliating 6-0 drubbing on their debut against Germany with wins over South Korea and Colombia.
In front of 17,342 fans, the sole goal arrived moments before half-time when Ibtissam Jraidi was impeded in the box by a clumsy Daniela Arias.
Captain Ghizlane Chebbak’s penalty kick was spectacularly saved by lunging goalkeeper Catalina Perez, who dived to her left.
But Sakina Ouzraoui pounced on the deflection and her nifty pass found Lahmari who made no mistake from close range.
Colombia, wearing their yellow shirts, fielded a full-strength team despite having effectively qualified to the last 16 before this game.
Real Madrid striker Linda Caicedo, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 15 but made a full recovery, took her place after x-rays cleared her of any health issues.
Caicedo, who scored goals in Colombia’s wins against South Korea and Germany, had suffered breathing difficulties against the Germans just days after collapsing in training with chest pain.
Midfielder Mayra Ramirez overcame a knee injury sustained against Germany.
But Morocco took heed of coach Reynald Pedros’ plea to play aggressively with a dashing Jraidi forcing Perez into a save in the opening minute.
An attacking Morocco continued to dictate the early exchanges with Chebbak and Fatima Tagnaout particularly influential.
Tagnaout set up Lahmari whose long-range strike on the half hour sailed well over the bar.
Caicedo had limited impact and copped an errant tackle to her foot which had her writhing on the turf.
She was finally involved just before half-time with several menacing dashes down the right, but Colombia couldn’t capitalize.
Morocco made them pay with Lahmari’s goal putting the group on a knife’s edge at the interval.
Colombia came out aggressively and almost equalized on the hour when Daniela Montoya’s bullet was brilliantly saved by Morocco goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi.
They continued to press with Ramirez slamming a powerful shot from a tight angle into the right post.
But Morocco hung on to trigger wild celebrations from their players.
Morocco stun Colombia to reach last 16 and dump out Germany
https://arab.news/45u4a
Morocco stun Colombia to reach last 16 and dump out Germany
- Germany eliminated after being held to 1-1 draw with South Korea
- Colombia to play Jamaica in the round of 16, Morocco to face France
Inter eight clear after win at Cremonese marred by fans’ flare flinging
- Inter again comfortably dealt with one of the division’s lesser lights, their consistency against the lower-ranked teams
MILAN, Italy: Inter Milan extended their lead at the top of Serie A to eight points with Sunday’s 2-0 win at Cremonese, a match which was marred by away fans nearly hitting the hosts’ goalkeeper Emil Audero with a firecracker.
Lautaro Martinez and Piotr Zielinski’s first-half strikes were enough for Inter to extend their unbeaten league run to 11 matches and pile pressure on nearest challengers AC Milan who face Bologna on Tuesday.
Inter again comfortably dealt with one of the division’s lesser lights, their consistency against the lower-ranked teams. Cristian Chivu’s team have collected 31 points from those 11 fixtures.
“It’s not a message to the rest of the league, it’s a message to ourselves,” said Martinez.
“There’s still along way to go and it’s a very evenly-balanced division.”
Martinez’s header, which came in the 16th minute from Federico Dimarco’s corner, made him Inter’s joint fourth-highest goalscorer in Serie A — level on 128 with Alessandro Altobelli who won the World Cup with Italy in 1982.
Martinez celebrated both his goal and his daughter’s fifth birthday, but a positive evening for him and Inter almost took a darker turn when Audero fell to the turf following the arrival of the firecracker from the Inter fans massed behind his goal.
The match was stopped for a few minutes and for a moment it appeared Audero, who played four times for Inter during the 2023/24 season, had been directly struck by the explosive, which went off near him in the penalty area.
Fortunately a stunned Audero had only suffered minor injuries to his leg and was able to continue, and the match finished without further incident.
“It’s something you have to condemn... it’s a very dangerous thing that you cannot do,” said Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni, who was born in Cremona and whose father played at full-back for Cremonese.
“I can only express solidarity with Emil who was a teammate of ours. Let’s hope they don’t happen any more.”
Cremonese started the season well but nine matches without a win has left them in 16th, five points above the relegation zone with fixtures against Atalanta, Roma and Milan coming up in the next few weeks.
Juve up to fourth
Gleison Bremer helped Juventus up to fourth, the Brazilian international defender scoring twice in a comfortable 4-1 win at Parma as the Turin giants continued their revival under Luciano Spalletti.
Bremer put Juve ahead in the 15th minute and poked home the away team’s third from close range eight minutes after the break, shortly after Andrea Cambiaso put Parma back in the game by flicking an innocuous cross into his own goal.
The 28-year-old has had to battle back from two serious knee injuries but looks back to his best for Juve’s push to for Champions League qualification.
Weston McKennie and Jonathan David scored the other goals as Juve, who look like a totally different team to the one coached by Spalletti’s predecessor Igor Tudor, went two points above Roma who take on Udinese on Monday night.
Como are sixth on 41 points, four behind Juve after Nico Paz wasted a last-gasp penalty in a goalless draw with Atalanta, who sit seventh and are set to sell one-time star winger Ademola Lookman to Atletico Madrid.
Como would have moved above Roma on goal difference had rising star Nico Paz netted from the spot in the eighth minute of added time after Giorgio Scalvini’s handball.
But Marco Carnesecchi pulled off a brilliant save to deny Paz and earn 10-man Atalanta, who had Honest Ahanor sent off in the eighth minute, a hard-earned point.
The 21-year-old Paz has scored eight times and set up six more this Serie A season as Como, owned by tobacco giant Djarum and coached by Cesc Fabregas, have exceeded expectations in just their second top-flight season in a quarter of a century.
