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Good news, bad news
Morocco blanks Scotland, won't make second round
Posted: Wednesday September 23, 1998 04:58 PM
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Joy quickly turned to agony for Morocco Doug Pensinger/Allsport |
ST. ETIENNE, France (CNN/SI)
-- First they were tears of joy, then they were tears of despair. The
Moroccan team cried on the field on Tuesday after it beat Scotland 3-0,
but the bigger tears came slightly thereafter when the team learned the win
had not been enough to qualify it for the second round. Coach Henri
Michel hugged each of his players as the news reached the Geoffrey Guichard
Stadium that Norway had
beaten defending champion Brazil to hold
onto the second qualifying spot in Group A. At one stage,
the Moroccans were heading for a comfortable victory and the Norwegians
were losing in Marseille. But two late Norwegian goals made all Morocco's
gallant efforts heartbreakingly meaningless. The result also
left the Scots out in the first round for the eighth time in a row.
Brazil won the group ahead of Norway, with the Moroccans third and
Scotland, which has never made the second round, last. "All of
us, we and the players, are extremely disappointed," Michel said. "I want
to pay tribute to an excellent and an outstanding team and I want to thank
them from the bottom of my heart. "Morocco has shown the
world that we were playing an excellent World Cup and deserved to be here."
Scottish coach Craig Brown said he was upset with the goals his
defense allowed. "You can't give goals away at this level as
we did and hope to survive. We gave away two terrible goals," he said.
"I'm very disappointed, particularly for the wonderful
supporters who have come here." Salaheddine Bassir and
Abdeljilil Hadda punished the sleeping Scottish defense with strikes in the
22nd and 47th minutes and Bassir added a third goal five minutes from the
end. It was a fully deserved victory for Michel's team, who
lost to Brazil, but tied Norway. But it had such a sad ending.
The noisy band of Moroccan fans cheered wildly as each goal went in and the
expectancy of a second-round place rose. At the end, they were as
despondant as the huge "Tartan Army" of Scots who made Saint-Etienne seem
like Glasgow. The Moroccans went ahead in the 22nd minute
when Tahar El-Khalej aimed a high ball over the top of the slow-moving
Scottish defense. Bassir got clear of Colin Hendry to fire a
powerful, angled left-footed shot between goalkeeper Jim Leighton and his
near post. Two minutes into the second half the Moroccans
struck again with a breakaway goal. El Moustafa Hadji fired
another long pass and Hadda outran defender David Weir in a dash down the
left side. Hadda got in front of Weir and tried an audacious lob. Leighton
got his fingertips to the ball, but turned and chased it as it bounced
agonizingly behind him into the empty net. It was even worse
for Scotland seven minutes later when Craig Burley was shown a red card for
a tackle from behind on Bassir. Though hugely outnumbered by
the Scots in the stadium, the noisy Moroccans began chanting "Brazil,
Brazil" to compare their team with the mighty four-time Cup winner.
With the one-man advantage and a two-goal lead, the Moroccans
cleverly kept possession and allowed the Scots few chances. They
added a third goal when Hadda flicked a pass to Bassir, who lobbed the ball
over Weir and fired home from 12 yards, the ball deflecting slightly off
Hendry's knee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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