Morocco won a game at the World Cup for the first time in 24 years with a superb performance to beat Belgium 2-0 on Sunday.
Both teams were without key players as Romelu Lukaku remained unfit to start for Belgium and Moroccan goalkeeper Bono pulled out seemingly feeling unwell after the national anthems.
Early Morocco intent gave way to Belgium starting to dominate, Michy Batshuayi denied by substitute goalkeeper Munir El Kajoui in a one-on-one.
But the Red Devils failed to create serious chances and began to slip into a similar lacklustre performance that they put in against Canada to open their tournament.
Achraf Hakimi darted in behind to fire over for Morocco before the Atlas Lions thought they had taken the lead in first-half stoppage time.
Hakim Ziyech’s free-kick from the right whipped straight through Thibaut Courtois to send the huge north African following wild, but VAR showed Roman Saiss had broken the line from an offside position and interfered with play - which referee Cesar Ramos confirmed with a trip to the monitor.
It meant more than half of the 26 games at this World Cup have gone into half-time goalless.
However, a goal always felt likely as Sofiane Boufal went close for Morocco before Dries Mertens came off the bench to threaten for Belgium.
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But it was another substitute, Abdelhamid Sabiri, who broke the deadlock with a mirror-image of Ziyech’s disallowed strike. A low free-kick headed straight for Courtois but Saiss’ run - this time from an onside position - was enough to put him off and the ball hit the back of the net.
Belgium threw Lukaku on but the raucous atmosphere created by the Atlas Lions’ fans taking over Al Thumama Stadium helped create a sense that Morocco were the more likely to score next.
And so it proved as the excellent Ziyech took over a long ball to spin a cross towards Zakaria Aboukhlal, who fired high into the roof of the net to secure the points in stoppage time.
