LYON: Moroccan soccer is having a moment.
Surprise semifinalists at the World Cup two years ago, the men’s team has emulated that achievement at the Paris Olympics.
Morocco routed the United States 4-0 in the quarterfinals and plays Spain on Monday for the chance to reach the final.
“I have one goal here, which is to win the medal,” Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi said, referring to gold.
A place in the final would be extra special for Hakimi, who plays his club soccer for Paris Saint-Germain, and would compete at his home stadium, Parc des Princes, if Morocco advances.
Then again, most Morocco matches have felt like home games for the team, given the fervent support it has enjoyed in France, which has a large Moroccan population. Moroccan fans packed Parc des Princes for the victory over the Americans.
It will be the same again for the semifinal in Marseille, France’s oldest city, which has deep North African connections.
“The fans follow us everywhere we go. Let’s hope it continues like this until the end of the tournament. We are here to make them feel proud of us,” Hakimi said.
That support has overstepped the mark at the Games when fans rushed the field and threw bottles in Morocco’s 2-1 win over Argentina in the group phase and caused the game to be suspended for around two hours.
Against the US, fans were warned by the stadium announcer not to light flares after several were set off following Morocco’s first goal.
Morocco’s supporters lit up the Qatar World Cup in 2022 in a different way — uniting many fans in the region as the first Arab and African team to advance to the semifinals — eventually taking fourth place.
It couldn’t follow that success at this year’s African Cup of Nations — being eliminated by South Africa in the round of 16 — but it did win the Under-23 version of the tournament to qualify for the Olympics and showcase its depth of talent.
At these games, the Moroccans have advanced to the semifinals for the first time and has the chance to medal. The win against Argentina started its tournament off with a bang.
“We are a proud, proud country. We love our country,” Morocco coach Tarik Sektioui said. “We all love to be Moroccan and, it’s (taken) a lot of work. We as coaches or players are determined to improve and (show) to everybody that Moroccan players can be world players and the Moroccan coach can be also a good, world, coach. It’s just a question of work and mentality.”
Morocco’s senior team shocked Spain by eliminating it from the last World Cup and its Olympic team is aiming to emulate that feat and secure a place in the final against France or Egypt.
Spain won gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and has taken silver on three other occasions, including the last Games in Tokyo when it lost to Brazil in the final.
Spanish soccer is also enjoying a boom period after the men won the European Championship this summer and the women were crowned world champion last year.
Both the men’s and women’s teams are into the semifinals at the Olympics.
If Morocco wins, it could be down to the tournament’s leading scorer Soufiane Rahimi.
The 28-year-old striker was one of Sektioui’s overage picks. The Olympic men’s tournament is restricted to under 23s with the exception of three overage players.
Rahimi’s selection has certainly paid off, with the forward scoring five goals so far.
Rahimi plays his club soccer for Al Ain in United Arab Emirates and won the Asian Champions League last season when he was top scorer with 13 goals. Al Ain eliminated Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in the quarterfinals.
Sektioui believes Rahimi has the ability to play in one of Europe’s top leagues.
“Last year he was one of the best strikers in Asia and won the Asian Cup (Champions League). That means everything,” the Morocco coach said. “He has everything... he’s explosive, he’s clever, he can score.”
France vs. Egypt
Also Monday, host nation France plays Egypt in Lyon and is looking to end a 40-year wait for Olympic gold in the men’s soccer.
France’s only gold came at Los Angeles 1984.
This is Egypt’s third time in the semifinals having has twice finished in fourth place — at Amsterdam 1928 and Tokyo 1964.
If Egypt and Morocco both win it would set up the first all-African final in Olympic men’s soccer.
Morocco making waves with polished play and fervent fans at Olympics, Spain awaits in soccer semis
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Morocco making waves with polished play and fervent fans at Olympics, Spain awaits in soccer semis
- Morocco routed the United States 4-0 in the quarterfinals
Man United rout third-division Barnsley 7-0 in English League Cup
- It was United’s biggest margin of victory under the Dutchman, who has been in charge for more than two years
- Everton’s troubled campaign went from bad to worse after it was eliminated by second-to-last Southampton — losing 6-5 on penalties
MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag savored the “perfect night” after routing third-division Barnsley 7-0 in the English League Cup on Tuesday.
It was United’s biggest margin of victory under the Dutchman, who has been in charge for more than two years.
Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Christian Eriksen all scored two goals each in the third round match at Old Trafford, with Antony also on target.
“Not for me, but for the team, this is the perfect night. I think we could do everything that we planned to do. We won, (we are in) next round, scored some great goals, entertained the fans and we worked on our game model, so we are happy,” Ten Hag said.
The size of the victory surpassed United’s previous best under Ten Hag: 4-1 wins against Real Betis and Chelsea in his first season at the club. It was the biggest since a 9-0 win over Southampton under former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2021.
Encouragingly for Ten Hag, Rashford’s scoring touch appears to have returned after a troubled season last year when he managed just nine goals.
Rashford’s double came after he ended a 12-game barren run with a goal against Southampton over the weekend.
“Football is football. Sometimes you have ups and sometimes downs, but we have to use these games to get momentum and consistency,” Rashford said.
Garnacho also scored in that 3-0 win in the Premier League and emulated Rashford by making it three goals in his last two games.
Eriksen struck twice late on.
Rashford blasted United in front after cutting inside Marc Roberts in the 16th minute. Antony doubled the lead when winning and then converting a penalty in the 35th.
Garnacho poked home from close range in the second minute of first-half stoppage time.
United overpowered Barnsley after the break with Garnacho scoring his second when racing through on goal in the 49th. Rashford scored again in the 58th.
It was the first time Rashford has scored more than one goal in a game since February 2023.
Eriksen’s double came in the 81st and 85th.
Everton troubles
Bottom of the Premier League and without a point, Everton’s troubled campaign went from bad to worse after it was eliminated by second-to-last Southampton — losing 6-5 on penalties.
The Merseyside team had taken the lead through Abdoulaye Doucoure in the 20th at Goodison Park, but Taylor Harwood-Bellis evened the game in the 32nd.
Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy saved Ashley Young’s penalty in sudden death to seal Everton’s fate.
Eberechi Eze struck the winner as Crystal Palace beat second-division Queens Park Rangers 2-1 and Brentford survived an early scare against third-tier Leyton Orient to win 3-1.
Brandon Cooper fired Orient ahead in the 11th, but Fabio Carvalho, Mikkel Damsgaard and Christian Norgaard eased Brentford to victory.
Shootout drama
Second-division Preston secured the biggest shock of the night by beating Fulham 16-15 in an epic penalty shootout.
The game ended 1-1 at full time with Ryan Ledson putting Preston ahead in the 35th and Reiss Nelson equalizing for Fulham in the 61st.
What followed was the longest shootout in League Cup history with Preston eventually triumphing after 34 spot kicks.
After 32 penalties were successfully converted, Fulham’s Timothy Castagne missed the target and Ledson made no mistake to fire Preston into the fourth round.
It was a different story as Stoke overcame Fleetwood 2-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Sheffield Wednesday beat Blackpool 1-0.
Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois lead boxing stars at Riyadh Season Card Wembley Edition grand arrivals
Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois lead boxing stars at Riyadh Season Card Wembley Edition grand arrivals
- Fans got a glimpse of the stars and the entire undercard line-up at Leicester Square event
LONDON: Leicester Square in London played host to a boxing fan’s dream on Tuesday night when the 12 British boxers taking part in Saturday’s Riyadh Season Card Wembley Edition made their grand arrivals.
The parade of talent was headlined by Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, who will battle it out for the International Boxing Federation heavyweight title at a sell-out Wembley Stadium.
Fans got a glimpse of the stars and the entire undercard line-up, as well as the promoters of the event - Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions.
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PHOTO GALLERY OF GRAND ARRIVALS HERE
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Joshua admitted at the event that although he was feeling tense about the fight, his body was in good condition and he felt he could continue boxing for another four years.
“I’m tense,” he told DAZN on the red carpet. “I’m tense. The fight’s around the corner – I don’t forget that the fight’s around the corner. This is chilled though. We’re not fighting today so I’m chilled.”
Speaking to Sky Sports, Dubois said he was feeling “in the right place at the right time” to take on Joshua and defend his IBF belt, adding that he needed to “stay in his bubble and stay focused.”
Stylish Liverpool strut past Milan in confident Champions league opener
- Fashion Week got underway in Milan on Tuesday and it was the away team who made all of the slick moves at the San Siro in a clash of European football royalty
MILAN, Italy: Liverpool strutted to a 3-1 win at AC Milan on Tuesday as the Reds got their campaign in the revamped Champions League off to a stylish start.
Arne Slot’s team reacted superbly to going behind in the third minute to a Christian Pulisic goal and ended up cruising to the three points thanks to strikes from Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Fashion Week got underway in Milan on Tuesday and it was the away team who made all of the slick moves at the San Siro in a clash of European football royalty.
Liverpool and Milan have been crowned continental kings 13 times and have beaten each other in Champions League finals but the Reds were a class above and would have won by more had the woodwork not twice denied Mohamed Salah in the first half.
“It was a great day to celebrate your birthday at a stadium like this, and then to win,” said Slot, who turned 46 on Tuesday, to Prime Video.
“I wouldn’t have said this after five minutes but it went quite well.”
For Liverpool it was a return to perfect form after falling to a shock home defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend while Milan again struggled under new coach Paulo Fonseca ahead of Sunday’s Milan derby.
Fonseca has failed to convince Milan supporters, a large number of whom stayed away on Tuesday night with fewer than 60,000 turning up for their team’s highest profile fixture of the new league phase of Europe’s top club competition.
And Milan will likely have to face Italian champions Inter Milan, who take on Manchester City on Wednesday, without France goalkeeper Mike Maignan who limped off with a knee injury early in the second half.
“It’s a difficult start for us and we have to change things,” Pulisic told Sky in Italy before looking for an immediate response against Inter at the weekend.
“Of course it (the derby) is a big match for us,” he said. “We need to turn things around. We have a big opportunity to do that.”
Milan fans put up a giant display which read “fearless” before kick-off and the hosts tore straight into Liverpool, Virgil van Dijk desperately clearing Tijjani Reijnders low cross.
And Pulisic quickly had Milan ahead with his super low finish, punishing Liverpool’s dawdling defense after being brilliantly sent scurrying toward goal by Alvaro Morata at the end of a move which was started by Maignan.
Liverpool quickly responded however and were unlucky in the 16th minute when Salah smashed an effort with his weaker right foot off the crossbar.
And the away side, whose pressing had started to force Milan into giving the ball away cheaply, were level when Konate nodded home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s floated free-kick.
With the Reds taking control, Milan should have been behind before Van Dijk nodded Liverpool ahead, as Diogo Jota wasted a great chance seconds after Konate’s leveller and Salah smacked another shot off the bar on the half-hour mark.
Things got even worse for the home team in the 51st minute when Maignan, who had already dropped to the ground in pain twice during the first half, limped off after being clattered by Fikayo Tomori as the England defender desperately tried to stop Jota from extending Liverpool’s lead.
Maignan was replaced by teenager Lorenzo Torriani and the rookie could only look on in the 67th minute as Szoboszlai bundled home Cody Gakpo’s teasing cross after the Netherlands forward eased past sluggish Strahinja Pavlovic.
Disappointed Milan fans began streaming toward the exit long before the final whistle, after which a deluge of whistles and boos, and loud chants for their team to “show some balls,” met a thoroughly deserved defeat.
Runners-up Yokohama thrashed 7-3 in goal fest
- Shanghai Shenhua drub South Korea’s Pohang Steelers 4-1, while Buriram United of Thailand and Vissel Kobe of Japan play out a 0-0 draw
SOUL: Asian Champions League debutants Gwangju FC scored after just 90 seconds on the way to a 7-3 home hammering of last year’s runners-up Yokohama F-Marinos on Tuesday.
Also on the second day of action in Asia’s top club competition, which has been rebranded as the Asian Champions League Elite, Shandong Taishan won 3-1 at home to Central Coast Mariners of Australia.
On a good night for Chinese teams, Shanghai Shenhua thrashed South Korea’s Pohang Steelers 4-1, while Buriram United of Thailand and Vissel Kobe of Japan played out a 0-0 stalemate.
In South Korea, Gwangju grabbed an early lead over Japan’s Yokohama when Jasir Asani’s tame effort from outside the box squirmed under the grasp of visiting goalkeeper Riku Terakado.
The hosts extended their lead at a sparsely attended Gwangju World Cup Stadium on the quarter-hour mark when Oh Hu-seong headed in unmarked at the back post.
Yokohama hit back on 34 minutes when the Brazilian Elber slammed home as the rain came down.
The game turned goal crazy in a madcap second half, with Albanian international Asani netting twice more for his hat trick and the hosts adding three more.
Elber, with his second, and Takuma Nishimura pulled goals back for the bedraggled away team, who were reduced to 10 men late on.
The J. League’s Yokohama are coached by the Australian John Hutchinson following the sacking of compatriot Harry Kewell after just six months in the job.
The former Liverpool and Leeds star Kewell took Yokohama to the two-legged Champions League final in May, where they lost to Al Ain of the UAE 6-3 on aggregate.
Kewell was axed two months later after a torrid run of form and Hutchinson was promoted from the backroom staff on a caretaker basis.
The Asian Champions League Elite begins with two leagues containing 12 teams each and split between East and West Zones.
The competition kicked off on Monday and concludes in May next year.
Mbappe bolstering holders Madrid’s Champions League ambitions
MADRID: The format may be new, but few would bet against the winner staying the same.
As if record 15-time winners Real Madrid’s Champions League prospects were not great enough already, superstar striker Kylian Mbappe’s arrival makes Los Blancos the most daunting team in the competition.
German side Stuttgart have the honors of facing the reigning kings of Europe in the opening week of the competition, traveling to the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday.
Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund in last season’s Wembley final to claim the trophy for the sixth time in the last 11 years.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti, the most decorated manager in the history of the tournament with five triumphs, has not yet found the perfect set-up to get Mbappe firing from open play, but few doubt he will.
The 25-year-old had arguably his best game for the club in the 2-0 win over Real Sociedad on Saturday in La Liga, threatening the Basque side with his pace and connecting well with Vinicius Junior in attack.
Mbappe scored, albeit from the penalty spot, and he is looking forward to his Champions League debut in Madrid’s resplendent white.
“It will be very important for me — as I said on the first day, I came to Madrid to live these type of nights,” explained the striker.
“I am very focused on what we have to do, the Champions League has changed a lot, it’s a new competition, and we have to win to start well.”
The new-look structure has thrown up ties for Madrid at home against Dortmund, in a rematch of last season’s showpiece, and away at Liverpool, whom they defeated in the 2022 final.
First come Stuttgart, continuing a streak of German opponents for Los Blancos, after they faced Bayern Munich in the semis before Dortmund in London.
Los Blancos have played one European game already this season, defeating Atalanta to win the UEFA Super Cup in August, with Mbappe scoring on his debut.
Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger came through Stuttgart’s youth system and played in the first team for four seasons.
Ancelotti has problems in midfield with Eduardo Camavinga, Dani Ceballos, Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni out injured, although the Italian was hopeful the latter two could take part against the Germans.
While Madrid’s shiny new toy Mbappe is drawing much of the attention, Ancelotti has plenty of stars at his disposal with the talent to turn defeats into draws and draws into victories, something of a penchant for the club, particularly under the lights in Europe.
Bellingham was Madrid’s key player for the first half of last season, making an immediate impact on his arrival from Dortmund.
Brazilian forward Vinicius was vital in the home straight, netting a brace in the semis against Bayern and scoring again in the final.
The forward has struggled to find his best level at the start of the season but his coach will show plenty of patience.
“We love him here because although right now he’s not at his best, nobody can forget that with Vini we have won two Champions Leagues,” pointed out Ancelotti last week.
Mbappe says he is working on his on-pitch relationship with Vinicius, with both netting penalties in the win over La Real.
“We try to find each other in training to create the connection and help the team,” continued Mbappe.
“He’s a great player and I’m happy to play with him in Real Madrid — what’s important is goals, not who takes the penalties.”
Mbappe has three La Liga goals from four games this season, including two penalties, while Vinicius has two, both from the spot.
Once the two forward are firing on all cylinders in open play Madrid’s already sizeable chance of winning the Champions League yet again will grow further still.
