Morocco pulls off another World Cup upset, beats Belgium
MOROCCO pulled off an upset of Belgium in the soccer World Cup title race on Tuesday with a 1-0 victory at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
Belgium, which was eliminated in the quarterfinals last year, played with 10 men for much of the game but was able to get some offense going in the first half and a couple goals in the second half.
But Morocco held on for the win, the third time in four tries that the Maghreb team has eliminated a World Cup-bound side.
After Belgium had taken the lead through Marco Van Ginkel’s first goal, the home team responded with a flurry of shots, taking the lead in the 22nd minute when Houssem Aouar scored.
Belgium was able to get back into the game in the 37th minute when Nicolas Van der Gragt scored in the second half, but the Maghreb team stayed the course, eventually scoring a goal in the final minute to win it.
All three of Morocco’s goals were scored by substitute Yassine Aït Ahid, who scored his first international goal since Sept. 13 in a 2-2 draw in the play-in round.
Morocco will play in the World Cup’s last eight games, after beating Argentina and Egypt.
After scoring a late goal to beat the Dutch side, the Americans bounced back with a 1-0 loss to Belgium — the second time the Americans have lost to a top-ten team.
Belgium outplayed the game into overtime when they had a couple of corner kicks blocked, but the American team had the last word in the 90th minute of the game.
Belgian winger Nicolas Van der Gragt was injured in the game after a collision in the box with a teammate on the play.
“He was really lucky,” U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “There’s nothing else to say. He got down into
