By Samindra Kunti in Casablanca, Morocco
February 5 – In the pouring rain Morocco waltzed to a superb maiden African Nations Championship title, crushing ten-men Nigeria 4-0. Morocco’s Ayoub El Kaabi, CHAN’s top scorer with nine goals, was named player of the tournament.
After 32 games and 58 goals, hosts Morocco secured an imposing victory over Nigeria. The Moroccans had Achraf Bencharki (on the bench) and Jawad El Yamiq cleared to play despite the players having secured moves to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia and Genoa in Italy respectively during the tournament. The African Nations Championship is a tournament for home-based players. In the group stages Guinea had launched an appeal over the eligibility of Sudan’s Elsmani Elsawi Saadeldin.
The hosts bossed the final from start to finish, restricting Nigeria to defending and the use of long balls to launch attacks. Those attacks were far and few, and the Moroccans were rampant going forward with the menacing presence of centre forward El Kaabi and wingers Ismael El Haddad and Zakaria Hadraf. In the 44th minute Hadraf broke the deadlock from inside the box with a low drive.
After the interval the visitors capitulated following Eneji Moses’ sending-off. Walid El Karta headed in Morocco’s second, Hadraf scored a third and El Kaabi completed the rout with his ninth goal of the tournament. Under the watchful eye of CAF president Ahmad Ahmad and the Moroccan Crown Prince Moulay Hassan he was named player of the tournament.
Morocco’s win, a first continental title since the country’s 1976 African Cup of Nations victory in Ethiopia, was the culmination of a 24-day competition across four host cities – Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier. Attendances were mixed with near-empty stadiums at most matches, excluding those of the host nation.
Morocco had stepped in at the last minute to host the fifth edition of the African Nations Championship as Kenya, the original hosts, were deemed unfit by CAF. The East Africans failed to meet set deadlines and offered little guarantees of staging a successful competition.
Sudan, Libya and Namibia proved to be the surprise packages of the tournament, a testimony to the strength in-depth of the African domestic game. As the knockout phase began, goals dried up: before the final just 54 goals were scored at an average of 1.74 per match, but El Kaabi and his teammates ensured a happy ending to tournament for the hosts with a flood of goals to match the weather in the final.
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