BBC News, Arabic Go to main content Headings Watch Listen Main Sections News Economy Health and Science Culture and Arts 2026 World Cup Investigations News Economy Health and Science Culture and Arts 2026 World Cup Investigations Morocco achieves the first Arab victory against Scotland with the fastest goal in the 2026 World Cup Image source, Getty Images
Morocco secured a 1-0 victory over Scotland thanks to the fastest goal in the current edition of the FIFA World Cup, enhancing its hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of Group C early Saturday.
Morocco took the lead after just a little over a minute when Ismail Sabri capitalized on a pass from Brahim Diaz.
Sabri had scored the opening goal for the Atlas Lions in their 1-1 draw against Brazil in their opening match.
The Moroccan team, which reached the semi-finals in the last edition in Qatar 2022, dominated the match and its players took turns missing chances but maintained their lead to earn three points.
With this result, Morocco tops its group with four points, one point ahead of Scotland in second place, which opened its campaign in the tournament with a 1-0 win over Haiti, who sit at the bottom of the group, ahead of its match against Brazil later today.
The Moroccan team started the match strongly and after just a little over a minute from the starting whistle, opened the scoring through Sabri, who received a precise long pass from Diaz that put him in front of the goalkeeper and fired a powerful shot into the net.
This goal is Morocco's fastest goal in the World Cup, according to the "Opta" soccer statistics platform.
Sabri's goal is the second-fastest goal by an African team after Asamoah Gyan's goal for Ghana against the Czech Republic in 2006 (1:08).
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Morocco's strong performance continued, and Sabri played a low pass inside the penalty area that curiously passed in front of two of his teammates in front of the goal.
Nail Alaynawi almost doubled Morocco's lead with a powerful shot from inside the penalty area after a run from Diaz, but his effort went over the crossbar in the 30th minute.
Minutes later, Bilal Khannous came close to scoring but his shot also went over the crossbar.
At the start of the second half, the ball, after a quick attack on the left side led by Khannous, reached Sabri, who took a shot that deflected off one of the Scotland defenders and hit the crossbar before going out of play.
Khannous almost doubled Morocco's lead with a header from a corner kick, but the goalkeeper saved it brilliantly.
Scotland pressed towards the end hoping to equalize, but their efforts were in vain as the Moroccan team achieved its first win in the current edition.
Morocco will conclude its journey in the group stage with a match against Haiti on Thursday at the same time as the Brazil vs. Scotland match.
Sabri, the goal scorer, told beIN Sports, "We could have scored more and we are happy with the way we played. The build-up play was good and the assist from Ibrahim was beautiful."
He added, "If we had scored the second goal, it would have allowed us to play more comfortably. In the final minutes, we knew they would play long balls into the penalty area; we want to win all the matches in the World Cup."
This victory marks Morocco's sixth in World Cup history, tying it with Ghana and Nigeria as the African teams with the most wins in the history of the tournament, according to Opta.
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