Morocco U17 national football team have racked up the biggest victory in World Cup history to keep their hopes alive of advancing to the knockout phase. They smashed, on Sunday in Qatar, New Caledonia 16-0, a new record for biggest ever victory at FIFA Under-17 World Cup.
Morocco’s huge victory beats Spain’s 13-0 win over New Zealand in 1997, which was the previous largest margin of victory in the competition.
Young Atlas Lions Oualid Ibn Salah, Abdelali Eddaoudi, Ziyad Baha, Nahël Haddani, Abdellah Ouazane and Ismail El Aoud all scored braces, while Bilal Soukrat, Ilyas Hidaoui and Zakari El Khalfioui all scored one each, to go with an own goal by Steevy Andrew.
Morocco’s captain Hamza Bouhaddi said the performance reflected a reset after two early defeats. “We’re delighted with this win and the spirit we showed today. This is our true level. We lost the first two matches, but we tried to put that behind us and we approached today’s game as if it were our first in the tournament,” he said.
Morocco finished third in the pool having lost their first two games to end on three points, but with a +8 goal-difference that boosts their Round of 32 hopes significantly and almost assures them of a place in the knockout stage.
