OneFootball
·5 September 2025
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·5 September 2025
The 2026 World Cup already has 17 of the 48 teams confirmed.
Morocco, a semifinalist in Qatar in 2022, celebrated their spot this Friday (5).
The Atlas Lions defeated Niger 5-0. They are now guaranteed a place in the World Cup in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
The match was played at Stade Prince Moulay Abdallah in Rabat, which will host matches for the next African Cup of Nations and the 2030 World Cup.
This will be Morocco's seventh World Cup.
Besides 2022, they participated in the editions of 1970, 1986, 1994, 1998, and 2018.
The calculation for early qualification was simple: they needed Tanzania not to win against the then scoreless Congo earlier.
And the 1-1 draw left the Moroccan team depending only on themselves.
Facing a rival still dreaming - six points - the hosts had an advantage after Goumey received two cards in an eight-minute interval.
And the dominance turned into goals thanks to Ismael Saibari from PSV, who scored at 29' and 38'.
El Kaabi (51'), Igamane (69'), and Ounahi (85') completed the celebration.
Key players both on and off the field, Bono, Hakimi, and Amrabat were starters.
Morocco reached 18 points after six games. They remain 100%. Tanzania reached ten. Zambia (six) and Niger (six) are still dreaming.
Each team plays a total of eight games, as the group also includes Congo (one point).
See the situation of all groups here.
Fifty-three teams were divided into nine groups.
Only the group leader of each group goes directly to the World Cup.
The four best runners-up secure a spot in the African playoffs.
This will determine the continent's representative in the world playoffs.
There will be six teams competing for two World Cup spots, and so far only New Caledonia is guaranteed.
AFC - Asia
🇦🇺 Australia - 🇰🇷 South Korea - 🇮🇷 Iran - 🇯🇵 Japan - 🇯🇴 Jordan (debutant) - 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan (debutant)
CAF - Africa
🇲🇦 Morocco
Concacaf - Central and North America
🇨🇦 Canada (host country) - 🇺🇸 United States (host country) - 🇲🇽 Mexico (host country)
Conmebol - South America
🇦🇷 Argentina - 🇧🇷 Brazil - 🇨🇴 Colombia - 🇪🇨 Ecuador - 🇵🇾 Paraguay - 🇺🇾 Uruguay
OFC - Oceania
🇳🇿 New Zealand
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.
📸 ABDEL MAJID BZIOUAT - AFP or licensors