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Day of Destiny for Morocco

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Doha, State of Qatar

Morocco, the first African team to have crossed the group stage hurdle in World Cup history will be making another effort this Sunday as they face Belgium.

Morocco assailed previous heights of African countries when they qualified from the group stage at Mexico ‘86 World Cup. But they face formidable hirdle this Sunday at the Al Thumama Stadium.

Belgium are the only team in Group F to have scored in their opening game at Qatar 2022.  Michy Batshuayi’s strike earned the 2018 semi-finalists a 1-0 win against Canada after Morocco had opened their FIFA World Cup 2022 account with a goalless draw against 2018 runners-up Croatia.

The countries have met once before at the finals, with Belgium claiming a 1-0 win in Orlando in 1994. In defeating Canada, Belgium racked up their eighth successive FIFA World Cup group-stage victory, equalling the record of Brazil, who have achieved that feat on two occasions (1986-1994 and 2002- 2010).

Morocco have plenty of experience of playing against European opposition at the FIFA World Cup, having played 13 of their 17 matches in the tournament against UEFA representatives.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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