Co-hosts Canada are out of the 2026 World Cup following defeat in Houston. Re-live the game with our Canada vs Morocco stats page.
Morocco progressed into the World Cup quarter-finals for a second straight edition after Azzedine Ounahi‘s second-half double helped them to a 3-0 win over co-hosts Canada on Saturday.
Having reached the semi-finals four years ago in Qatar, Mohamed Ouahbi’s side – who added a late third through Soufiane Rahimi – will hope to replicate that feat when they meet either France or Paraguay.
Morocco’s Canada-born goalkeeper Yassine Bounou had to be alert early on in Houston, first denying Jonathan David before making another smart stop with his feet from Tani Oluwaseyi as Les Rouges made a bright start.
Morocco’s task was made harder when leading scorer Ismael Saibari limped off injured in the 22nd minute, though his replacement Rahimi soon tested Maxime Crépeau with a speculative long-range effort.
A brief confrontation between Richie Laryea and Achraf Hakimi, the latter shoving the Canadian full-back off the ball, characterised an ill-tempered first half that lacked discipline and attacking quality.
But Morocco found their stride after the interval when Hakimi used a wide free-kick to disguise a pass towards Ounahi, who curled into the bottom-right corner from the edge of the box in the 50th minute.
Jesse Marsch responded by bringing off Oluwaseyi for Cyle Larin, who almost pounced on a loose ball inside the Morocco box, only to see yellow for his lunge on Bounou.
David clipped over a free-kick before Bounou pushed away Tajon Buchanan’s bouncing drive, only for Morocco to kill the contest eight minutes from time when Brahim Díaz offloaded for Ounahi to blast into the top-right corner after a rapid breakaway.
Rahimi headed against the crossbar from Ounahi’s right-sided cross soon after, but he would not be denied when steering past Crépeau from Díaz’s selfless throughball in the eighth minute of stoppage time.
Hakimi Makes African History for Knockout Specialists Morocco
With the United States celebrating Independence Day, fireworks were expected from these two teams after their thrilling round-of-32 clashes, but attacking excitement was sorely missing in the opening 45 minutes.
There was still some spark, albeit for the wrong reasons, with this the first World Cup match on record (since 1966) to see more yellow cards (6) than shots (5) at half-time.
This clash was also only the second knockout match at the finals to see six first-half yellow cards, with Brazil’s 3-0 win over Ghana in 2006 the other instance (also six). The eight cautions by full-time was the most in any match at this year’s tournament.
Canada may have felt Ounahi’s opener was harsh, given he escaped a second booking minutes earlier for a pull on Ali Ahmed, but Hakimi’s involvement should not surprise anyone.
A smart offload secured Hakimi’s third World Cup assist; the only defenders with more since 1966 are Daley Blind, Denzel Dumfries and Cafu (all four).
And further punishment followed from Ounahi, who became the first Morocco player to score twice in a World Cup match since Salaheddine Bassir in 1998 against Scotland.
Ouahbi will know tougher tests will follow, but Morocco have progressed from seven of their last nine knockout matches at major tournaments (World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations), excluding finals and third-place play-off matches.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Canada vs Morocco stats from their 2026 FIFA World Cup last 16 meeting at Houston Stadium on 4 July.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Canada vs Morocco: Post-Match Opta Facts
- Brahim Díaz now has four FIFA World Cup assists (two in this match) – the most by an African player in FIFA World Cup history.
- Canada have been eliminated from the FIFA World Cup and have failed to win any of their nine matches in World Cup history when they’ve gone behind (D1 L8).
- Morocco have now progressed from four FIFA World Cup knockout matches (two in 2022, two in 2026), as many as all other African nations combined (1 each for Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002, Ghana in 2010 and Egypt in 2026).
- Morocco have become the first African nation ever to reach the quarter-finals of two FIFA World Cup tournaments (2022 and 2026).
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