Morocco stuns Belgium in latest 2022 World Cup upset

The upsets keep on coming at the 2022 World Cup.

Morocco stunned Belgium on Sunday in a 2-0 victory to move to the top of the Group F standings. The win is Morocco’s first at a World Cup since 1998.

It seemed like it might not be Morocco’s day after they had a goal waved off by VAR right before halftime, but Abdelhamid Sabiri scored in the 73rd minute to break a scoreless deadlock, and Zakaria Aboukhlal added another in stoppage time to cement the win.

Belgium entered the 2022 World Cup in Qatar ranked No. 2 in the FIFA world rankings. They defeated Canada 1-0 in their first game on Wednesday. Morocco tied Croatia 0-0 in their first game.

Perhaps this isn’t a total surprise for Belgium, at least not to star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. In an interview with the Guardian published on Saturday, De Bruyne was asked if Belgium can win the 2022 World Cup after reaching the semifinals four years ago in Russia.

“No chance, we’re too old,” De Bruyne said. “I think our chance was 2018. We have a good team, but it is aging. We lost some key players. We have some good new players coming, but they are not at the level other players were in 2018. I see us more as outsiders.”

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Croatia and Canada are set to play their second Group F game Sunday at 11 a.m. Belgium can advance with a win over Croatia on Thursday, when Morocco plays Canada.

Earlier Sunday, Costa Rica bounced back from a 7-0 drubbing against Spain to defeat Japan, 1-0, after Japan upset Germany on Wednesday.