CNN
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It was a day of big upsets at the World Cup as Belgium and Japan each succumbed to shock defeats in opposition to Morocco and Costa Rica respectively.
Morocco gained its first World Cup match since 1998 – and its third ever – securing a sensational 2-Zero victory over heavyweight Belgium to make sure that it may nonetheless qualify for the knockout stage for the second time in its historical past.
The Atlas Lions had been roared on by raucous help inside the stadium as they overcame a disallowed aim on the stroke of halftime to attain two wonderful strikes in the second half.
First, Abdelhamid Sabiri curled in a perfectly-weighted free kick from the left-hand wing, bamboozling Thibaut Courtois, earlier than Zakaria Aboukhlal sealed his facet’s well-known win.
After an underwhelming efficiency in its opening 1-Zero victory in opposition to Canada, Belgium began extra fluently however nonetheless appeared a shadow of its typical self as Morocco regarded to construct by itself strong begin to the World Cup following a scoreless draw in opposition to Croatia.
And it appeared as if Morocco had discovered the early breakthrough on the stroke of halftime, as Hakim Ziyech’s free kick rocketed previous Courtois, although it was later dominated out by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for offside.
The two sides headed down the tunnel degree at 0-0, however this didn’t quell the help of the 1000’s of Moroccan followers whose chants rang round the stadium all sport.
And they erupted in celebration halfway via the second half when Sabiri’s free-kick discovered the again of the internet, placing Morocco inside attain of the win.
Belgium provided little in response and Ziyech weaved via the Belgian protection in damage time, handed the ball again into the field the place Aboukhlal chipped it into the again of the internet.
When the remaining whistle blew minutes later, a number of Moroccan gamers fell to their knees – some bowed their heads in prayer, some merely collapsed in exhaustion – earlier than they embraced one another in celebration.
Morocco is now prime of Group F on 4 factors after beautiful the No. 2 ranked facet in the world.
Earlier in the day, Costa Rica shocked Japan with a 1-Zero win, because of an 81st minute aim from Keysher Fuller, as it saved its hopes of qualifying for the World Cup knockout phases alive with a vital three factors to tug degree with Spain and Japan in Group E.
Japan, recent from a shock victory over Germany that has given them an actual probability of reaching the knockout phases, couldn’t discover a foothold on this sport regardless of Costa Rica nonetheless licking its wounds from a chastening 7-Zero defeat in opposition to Spain.
It was a cagey, underwhelming opening first 45 minutes marked by untidy passing from either side as neither may muster a single shot on the right track.
Straight after half-time, nonetheless, the tempo instantly lifted with the introduction of two new faces for Japan – Takuma Asano and Hiroki Ito.
Hidemasa Morita shimmied his strategy to the penalty field and lined up a shot on aim that was batted away by Keylor Navas.
Japan continued to press however couldn’t capitalize and the sport quickly settled again into the tepid rhythm of the first half.
Then, in opposition to the run of play, Costa Rica capitalized on a mistake on the edge of the field and Fuller rifled the ball into the prime nook of the internet, previous the outstretched hand of Shuichi Gonda, for his facet’s first shot on the right track and first aim of the match.
It silenced the Samurai Blue followers for the first time, whose present of singing and drums had swept round the stadium for a lot of the sport, and buoyed the Costa Rican help as their very own chants of “Oe Oe Ticos!” grew louder.
With simply 9 minutes of common time remaining, Japan noticed its hopes of sealing a spot in the knockout phases slip away, and an opportunity late on with the ball ricocheting round the field was marshalled by Navas as Costa Rica held on for the win.
With Spain and Germany enjoying afterward Sunday, each groups’ fates shall be determined in the final spherical of fixtures.
Croatia averted becoming a member of the record of defeated favorites on Sunday, beating Canada 4-1 to document its first win in Qatar.
The 2018 World Cup finalist needed to come from a aim behind after Alphonso Davies scored in 68 seconds – the quickest aim at the match to date – to provide Canada the lead, however Croatia hit again with targets from Andrej Kramaric and Marko Livaja earlier than half-time.
Kramaric bought his second aim of the sport 20 minutes from time and Lovro Majer added the fourth in damage time to safe Croatia’s win as Canada exits the World Cup with two defeats in two matches.