Canada will play Morocco in the Round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup.
The Atlas Lions defeated the Netherlands 1-1 (3-2 on penalties) in Monterrey Monday night in the first round of the knockout stage, setting up a showdown with Canada Saturday afternoon in Houston.
Watch that game, as well as every other matchup from the FIFA World Cup LIVE on TSN, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
The Netherlands led 1-0 into stoppage time before Issa Diop headed home a picture-perfect ball into the box to equalize. After neither team was able to find a goal in extra time, Soufiane Rahimi, Chemsdine Talbi, and Ismael Saibari scored for Morocco in penalty kicks to send them through to play Canada.
Morocco had two wins and a draw for seven points in the preliminary stage of the tournament, but finished second in Group C to Brazil on goal differential.
Canada and Morocco were in the same group at the 2022 World Cup, with Morocco picking up a 2-1 group-stage victory on Dec. 1, en route to a fourth-place finish in Qatar.
Morocco scored twice to take an early two-goal lead and was able to overcome an own-goal near halftime to hold onto the win against Canada.
TSN Soccer Analyst Jason deVos said Canada’s familiarity with the Moroccan side could be a benefit.
“I think from a familiarity perspective, the team that played against Morocco, there are still a lot of players who are very familiar with this Moroccan side. Lot of players from Morocco who are still in the team [from 2022] at this World Cup,” deVos said.
Canada was a second-place finisher in group play and compiled four points to advance to the knockout stage for the first time. After drawing with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium to open their tournament, Jesse Marsch’s side earned a 6-0 win over Qatar in Vancouver that all but ensured they’d advance to the knockout stage.
Canada was unable to win Group B after falling 2-1 to Switzerland last week in their preliminary-round finale, but picked up a hard-fought 1-0 win over South Africa in the Round of 32 on a stoppage-time winner from Stephen Eustaquio Sunday afternoon.
Morocco are the sixth-ranked side as of FIFA’s latest rankings, while Canada sits 30th.
