Morocco crushed out Zambia to reach semifinals of African Nations Championship with Cameroon next in line
Morocco have crushed out Zambia to reach the semifinals of African Nations Championship (CHAN) as the North African step up defending the title.
Morocco are a step away from second consecutive CHAN final after beating one of the tournament’s favorites Zambia in quarterfinals at Reunification Stadium in Douala.
Morocco white-washed Nigeria to lift their first CHAN in 2014 and are on course of title defense defense after 3-1 thumb of Zambia but face a tough clash with Cameroon in semifinals.
Zambia were in the billing to progress beyond the quarterfinal of CHAN after been hammered 1-0 by Libya in last edition’s last 8 phase but another North African side this time Morocco hunt Zambia’s chase for their maiden CHAN title.
The best the Chipolopolo have come in the CHAN is stealing a place after beating West African side Senegal to a third place in Ivory Coast in 2009. They had a huge mountain to climb for a first semifinal football in CHAN since 2009 but saw fate crushed on the ground when the faced Morocco in Douala.
Morocco took a 3-0 lead before the end of the first half in what was a dominant display by Ammouta’s men. Zambia danger men Chabula and Sikombe were carefully handled by Morocco’s defense with Bouftini, Boutouil and Moussaoui keeping tabs on the versatile duo.
That job worked the magic for Morocco as they got the guts to move forward and their early incursion paid in good coin when Soufiane Rahimi scored under just 2’ minutes.
Mohammed Ali Bemammer doubled the lead after seven minutes before the Ayoub El Kaabi converted a 39’ minute penalty to complete Morocco’s 3-0 cruising.
For most minutes of the game, Zambia played to numerical disadvantage after Zachariah Chilongoshi was shown a straight red card on the 20th minutes. But Zambia managed to pulled themselves together after restart and only got a consolation with Moses Phiri netting when it was 10 minutes to full time.
Morocco will now face hosts Cameroon in the semifinals on Wednesday and the winner make a final date.
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