Nobody scripted this one for a nervy first hour. Haiti — playing in their first-ever World Cup match — took a 10th-minute lead in the most improbable way: Lenny Joseph's backheeled flick off Duverne's cross squirmed through Yassine Bounou and over the line, an own goal that nonetheless stands as Haiti's first World Cup goal since 1974. Morocco needed Hakimi's 39th-minute leveller to settle the nerves, only for Wilson Isidor to restore Haiti's lead three minutes later with a stunning long-range strike that briefly had Atlanta wondering if the bracket was about to break. Youssef Saibari pulled Morocco level again right before the break, and Soufiane Rahimi finally put Morocco in front for good on 78 minutes before teeing up Yassine for a fourth in the 89th to settle it at 4-2.
Mohamed Ouahbi, three months into the job after replacing the resigned Walid Regragui, sounded both relieved and ambitious afterward. "For that reason, our objective must be to win the World Cup," he said, before adding the kind of self-scrutiny that has defined his short tenure: "We need to correct some things. After every game, we study and analyze everything that happened so we can improve."
🛋️ The Couch predicted Morocco 4-0 Haiti, with "Díaz brace · El Kaabi · Hakimi assists throughout." Nailed the final scoreline almost exactly — and then got every single detail of how it happened wrong. Brahim Díaz didn't score. El Kaabi didn't score. Hakimi got on the board himself instead of just setting up others. And the Galáctico certainly didn't predict that Morocco's own World Cup-winning goalkeeper would gift Haiti's historic first goal in 52 years.
A first-ever World Cup goal, scored by gifting it themselves more or less doesn't matter to the record books — Haiti's name is on the board, 52 years after their last finals appearance.
Already through, Morocco still needed four goals and a second-half rally to shake off a Haiti side with nothing to lose but pride.
One of the heroes of Morocco's 2022 run will want this own goal off the highlight reel — but it's the goal that gave Haiti their World Cup moment.
| Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇲🇦 Morocco | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | +3 | 7 |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +3 | 4 |
| 🏴 Scotland | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 🇭🇹 Haiti | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -6 | 0 |
Morocco's win moves them provisionally top of Group C on 7 points. Brazil and Scotland's matchday-3 finale will decide the final standings and the group's second qualifier.