{"id":3785,"date":"2026-01-04T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/3785\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:46:11","slug":"diaz-delight-as-morocco-advance-to-cup-of-nations-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/3785\/","title":{"rendered":"Diaz delight as Morocco advance to Cup of Nations quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Item 1 of 5 Soccer Football &#8211; CAF Africa Cup of Nations &#8211; Morocco 2025 &#8211; Round of 16 &#8211; Morocco v Tanzania &#8211; Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, Morocco &#8211; January 4, 2026 Morocco&#8217;s Brahim Diaz celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS\/Amr Abdallah Dalsh<\/p>\n<p>[1\/5]Soccer Football &#8211; CAF Africa Cup of Nations &#8211; Morocco 2025 &#8211; Round of 16 &#8211; Morocco v Tanzania &#8211; Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, Morocco &#8211; January 4, 2026 Morocco&#8217;s Brahim Diaz celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS\/Amr Abdallah Dalsh <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/item\/caf-africa-cup-of-nations-morocco-2025-round-of-16-morocco-v-tanzania\/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjY6bmV3c21sX1VQMUVNMTQxQ04yMjI%3D\/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76 collapsible-caption-module__license__CPQvV\">Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a>Morocco book quarter-final place with 1-0 winDiaz scores for fourth game in a rowMorocco to meet S. Africa or Cameroon in last eight<\/p>\n<p>RABAT, Jan 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Brahim Diaz scored his fourth goal for Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to put the hosts into the quarter-finals with a nervous 1-0 Round-of-16 victory over Tanzania in Rabat on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco dominated possession but Tanzania had opportunities too, and it took a fine strike from Diaz to book a place in the last eight and a meeting with the winners of Sunday\u2019s second fixture between South Africa and Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"promo-box\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__promo-box__hVl8h\"> Sign up  <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/diaz-delight-morocco-advance-cup-nations-quarter-finals-2026-01-04\/undefined?location=article-paragraph&amp;redirectUrl=%2Fsports%2Fsoccer%2Fdiaz-delight-morocco-advance-cup-nations-quarter-finals-2026-01-04%2F\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Captain Achraf Hakimi fed Diaz on the right side of the box on 64 minutes and the Real Madrid playmaker worked his way to the byline, before firing into the goal from a tight angle when most expected a cross.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco wasted several other chances but were also fortunate that Tanzania were wasteful too, with Simon Msuva and Feisal Salum missing gilt-edged opportunities for the East Africans with the score at 0-0.<\/p>\n<p>It was a far from vintage performance from the home side, who have yet to click into top gear at the tournament but did enough to keep their campaign on track.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The competition is hotting up and we faced our toughest opponent in this Tanzania team,&#8221; Diaz said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not everything worked, we know that, but fortunately we managed to secure our qualification (to the next round). Now, we are going back to work to be fully ready for the quarter-finals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tanzania had an early opportunity when Msuva had an open goal to head into, but he could only steer his effort well wide.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco had the ball in the back of the net from Ismael Saibari\u2019s header from a free kick but he was narrowly offside.<\/p>\n<p>Ayoub El Kaabi then headed wide for the home side when he should have done better, and followed that up with another missed opportunity from Hakimi\u2019s delightful cross.<\/p>\n<p>Tanzania should have been ahead on 55 minutes as home goalkeeper Yassine Bounou could only parry a long-range shot and the ball fell to Salum, who blasted over the crossbar from 10 metres with the goal gaping.<\/p>\n<p>Hakimi then crashed a free kick against the frame of the goal, before Morocco finally scored to settle the nerves in the Stade Moulay Abdellah.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"SignOff\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__extra_small__8Buss body-module__full_width__kCIGb body-module__extra_small_body__Bfz20 sign-off-module__text__LQAMP\">Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Clare Fallon<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Body\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__element__5eCce article-body-module__trust-badge__5mS3f\">Our Standards: <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thomsonreuters.com\/en\/about-us\/trust-principles.html\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__medium__2Rl30 text-module__small__sph8i link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reutersagency.com\/en\/licensereuterscontent\/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"button-module__link__A3sD0 button-module__secondary__70gBu button-module__round__QDFgq button-module__w_auto__Sem-F\" data-testid=\"LicenceContentButton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Item 1 of 5 Soccer Football &#8211; CAF Africa Cup of Nations &#8211; Morocco 2025 &#8211; Round of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[488,483,1400,3139,494,495,492,491,493,487,490,1399,484,485,486,3138,152,489,1855],"class_list":{"0":"post-3785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tanzania","8":"tag-afr","9":"tag-caf","10":"tag-cenafr","11":"tag-cm","12":"tag-destoukspm","13":"tag-destozatpm","14":"tag-eafr","15":"tag-emea","16":"tag-emrg","17":"tag-ma","18":"tag-nafr","19":"tag-safr","20":"tag-soc","21":"tag-socc","22":"tag-spo","23":"tag-srpt","24":"tag-tanzania","25":"tag-tz","26":"tag-za"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}