Six-goal thriller leaves Morocco short of Group C top place

ATLANTA (AP):

Soufiane Rahimi and Gessime Yassine came off the bench to help Morocco rally for a 4-2 victory over Haiti yesterday and erase the Caribbean nation's hopes of a first-ever point at the World Cup.

Morocco, who became the first African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals four years ago in Qatar, twice came from behind against a team playing on football's biggest stage for the first time in 52 years.

Rahimi's deflected shot in the 78th minute put Morocco ahead 3-2, and Yassine killed off any chance of an upset with a goal in the 89th.

Morocco advanced to the round of 32 in second place behind Brazil in Group C and will next play the runner-up in Group F — Netherlands, Japan or Sweden — in Guadalajara. The five-time champions Brazilians beat Scotland 3-0 in the other group match.

"At times we lacked humility and paid the price for it," Morocco midfielder Bilal El Khannouss said. 

"We weren't fully committed in the duels, we gave them confidence and allowed them to grow into the game and score twice. At half-time, the coach told us we needed to be more aggressive, win the second balls and bring greater intensity to our attacking play."

Morocco, who won the most recent Africa Cup of Nations, have ambitions to go deep again after making history at the last World Cup. But the team was given a scare by Haiti, who took a surprise lead in the 10th minute with a goal that was more than five decades in the making.

Lenny Jospeh's back-heeled flick at the near post beat Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and he became his country's first scorer at a World Cup since Emmanuel Sanon in 1974, which was Haiti's only other appearance at the tournament.

Morocco pushed for an equaliser and Achraf Hakimi finally got it in the 39th minute. Haiti keeper Johny Placide managed to get a hand to El Khannouss' deflected cross, but couldn't prevent Hakimi from bundling the ball over the line.

Although Morocco looked to be ready to explode for more goals, it was Haiti who again took the lead four minutes later when Wilson Isidor scored from outside the box with a shot that flew into the top corner.

There was still time for another goal at the end of a thrilling half, with Ismael Saibari sweeping Hakimi's cross past Placide in stoppage time to make it 2-2 at the break.

It was Saibari's third goal of the tournament.