Morocco Held to Goalless Draw by Mauritania in Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier

The national coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, had nevertheless lined up a very good team on paper with, for the first time, Hakim Ziyech as captain. Unfortunately, there were many goal opportunities but it was impossible to put the ball in the back of the net.

As the coach had stated a few weeks earlier, the Moroccan team still lacks a player capable of fulfilling his role in front of the opposing goal, which does not seem to be the case today for Ziyech who nevertheless fought hard to please an audience still very resentful towards him, nor for Youssef En-Nesyri who finally joined the bench in the second half to make way for Sofiane Boufal, without more success.

At the end of this first day of Group D, it is the Central African Republic that takes the lead with 3 points, followed by Mauritania and Morocco with 1 point each and, finally, Burundi, with 0 points.