PARIS: Captain Achraf Hakimi was among the scorers as a dominant Morocco outclassed the United States on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Olympic men’s football tournament, winning their last-eight tie 4-0.
Morocco had the vast majority of a noisy and packed crowd at the Parc des Princes behind them and were simply too strong for the USA.
Soufiane Rahimi opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Ilias Akhomach and Hakimi added further goals in the second half, with another spot-kick, by Mehdi Maouhoub, wrapping up the win.
After topping their group ahead of Argentina, Morocco are looking like serious gold medal contenders and advance to a semifinal on Monday in Marseille against either Japan or Spain.
The Olympic men’s football final will take place at the Parc des Princes next Friday, August 9.
The sizeable Moroccan community in France has turned out in big numbers over the last week to back their team, who came to the Games after winning last year’s Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations.
They are a formidable side, captained by one of the world’s best full-backs in Hakimi and with two livewire wingers in Akhomach and Abde Ezzalzouli either side of the prolific Rahimi in attack.
The United States never really looked likely to recover once Rahimi converted a penalty just before the half-hour mark after he had been fouled in the area by Nathan Harriel.
Rahimi, who plays in the United Arab Emirates and is one of Morocco’s three overage players at the Olympics, is the tournament’s top scorer with five goals in four games.
Miles Robinson did miss a good chance for the Americans just before the hour, but Morocco doubled their lead on 63 minutes.
Ezzalzouli produced a great piece of play on the left flank before picking out his fellow former Barcelona youngster Akhomach to finish at the near post.
Hakimi, playing on his Paris Saint-Germain home ground, then ran through to make it 3-0 with 20 minutes of the game remaining.
Substitute Maouhoub added another penalty in stoppage time after Harriel had been penalized for handball following a VAR review.
The remaining quarter-finals all take place later Friday with the pick of the ties in Bordeaux, where hosts France, coached by Thierry Henry, take on two-time gold medallists Argentina.
It will be the first meeting of the nations since Argentina players were recorded singing racist chants about their French counterparts as they celebrated winning the Copa America in mid-July.
FIFA announced that it would investigate the chants, which targeted France’s star striker Kylian Mbappe among others.
Morocco march into Olympic men’s football semifinals
https://arab.news/gyuyn
Morocco march into Olympic men’s football semifinals
- After topping their group ahead of Argentina, Morocco are looking like serious gold medal contenders
- The Olympic men’s football final will take place at the Parc des Princes next Friday
Carlos Alcaraz wins third-round match but loses ‘drop-shot battle’ at Australian Open
- The left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in an almost festival Friday vibe
- “When you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s going to be next,” Alcaraz said
MELBOURNE: Carlos Alcaraz had to acknowledge that while he won the third-round match, he lost the battle of the drop shots against Corentin Moutet.
That could be a first for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who grew up relentlessly practicing his drop shots and is now at the Australian Open chasing a career Grand Slam.
The left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in an almost festival Friday vibe on Rod Laver Arena, his blend of drop shots, slice, lobs, tweeners, volleys and even an underarm serve keeping the world’s No. 1-ranked player on his toes.
“When you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s going to be next,” Alcaraz said after his 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over the No. 32 seed. “I had so much fun on the court. As you could see, we both pulled off great shots. Great points.”
Late in the first set, he said he was already fed up with tracking down drop shots and told his support team “I’m not going to run to get those.”
“I thought we were in a drop-shot competition,” Alcaraz added, laughing, “but he won!”
Ever the showman, Alcaraz chimed in with some of his own tricks and tweeners.
In the first round, Moutet was booed by the crowd for his underarm serve on match point. For his main arena debut, there was much more love from the crowd.
After a winning volley late in the match, he celebrated by extravagantly doffing his cap.
Alcaraz will next play Sunday against No. 19 Tommy Paul, who advanced when Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired with an injury after dropping the first two sets 6-1, 6-1.
In night matches, No. 3 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up here last year, advanced 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 over Cameron Norrie and No. 6 Alex de Minaur ousted Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. De Minuar next plays No. 10 Alexander Bublik.
Sabalenka, Coco Gauff advance
No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Coco Gauff had tough routes through the third round.
Sabalenka said there were times she felt like her head, her hands and her racket were not connected but she still had just enough to squeeze past Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).
Gauff weathered early trouble against Hailey Baptiste before advancing 3-6, 6-0-6-3, cutting down her unforced errors and not serving any double-faults in the second set. She next plays No. 19 Karolina Muchova.
Sabalenka , chasing her third Australian Open title in four years, led 6-5 and 40-0 in her opening set but Potapova saved all three set points to send it to a tiebreaker.
In the second set, Potapova recovered two service breaks and again force a tiebreaker. She then had three set points but Sabalenka rallied when the pressure was on.
“She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I was always on the back foot. There are days where you just have to fight — it was such a fight.”
Sabalenka won the Australian Open title in 2023 and 2024 and was the runner-up a year ago to Madison Keys.
She next faces 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, who was one of three teenagers advancing on Day 6.
Great’s advice
The 18-year-old Iva Jovic beat No. 7 Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 7-6 (3), after getting some advice from 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic.
“He gave me some very attentive tips for my game,” the American said. “That was one of the things in the forefront of my mind, because I think when Novak gives you some advice, you follow it.”
She’ll next play Yulia Putintseva, who shrugged off a vocal crowd to end Turkish player Zeynep Sonmez ‘s run, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3.
No. 8 Mirra Andreeva, who at 18 is into the fourth round in Australia for the third straight year, will next play No. 12 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who beat Diana Shnaider of Russia 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Tien-Medvedev revisited
Daniil Medvedev rallied for a 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Fabian Marozsan, the fifth time he’s rallied from two-sets down to win a Grand Slam match.
The 2021 US Open champion next has a rematch with Learner Tien, who upset him here last year.
Heating up
Play will begin an hour earlier than initially scheduled Saturday because of high temperatures expected at Melbourne Park. The forecast is for a high of 40 degrees Celsius (104 F).
