Captain Achraf Hakimi was among the scorers as a dominant With a 4-0 victory in their last-eight match, Morocco defeated the USA on Friday to advance to the Olympic men’s football tournament semifinals.
Morocco was just too powerful for the United States, especially with the majority of the boisterous and crowded crowd at the Parc des Princes behind them.
Soufiane Rahimi scored the first goal from the penalty spot, and the victory was sealed in the second half with goals from Ilias Akhomach, Hakimi, and Mehdi Maouhoub.
Morocco looks like strong gold medal candidates after defeating Argentina in their group. They will play either Spain or Japan in the semi-final on Monday in Marseille.
Next Friday, August 9, the Olympic men’s football final will take place in the Parc des Princes.
Over the past week, a sizable Moroccan diaspora in France has demonstrated its support for their squad, which qualified for the Games by winning the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations the previous year.
They have two explosive wingers, Akhomach and Abde Ezzalzouli, on each side of the prolific Rahimi in attack, and are led by one of the best full-backs in the world, Hakimi.
After Nathan Harriel fouled Rahimi in the area and he converted a penalty shortly before the half-hour mark, the United States never really looked like they would recover.
Rahimi leads the competition in goals scored with five in four games. Rahimi represents Morocco at the Olympics and plays for the United Arab Emirates.
The Americans did have a fantastic opportunity that Miles Robinson missed just before the hour, but Morocco extended their lead after sixty-three minutes.
After a brilliant move on the left flank, Ezzalzouli found his fellow former Barcelona youth Akhomach to finish at the near post.
With 20 minutes left in the match, Hakimi, who was playing on his home field for Paris Saint-Germain, sprinted through to make it 3-0.
In stoppage time, substitute Maouhoub scored another penalty after a VAR review had determined that Harriel had committed a handball.
The best of the remaining quarterfinal matches will take place later on Friday in Bordeaux, where the hosts France, under by Thierry Henry, will play Argentina, the two-time gold medal winners.
This will be the first meeting of the nations since players from Argentina were caught on camera celebrating their Copa America victory in mid-July by singing racist slogans about their French rivals.
