While Gabon vs. Niger was one of the more one-sided matches you’ll see at the Africa Cup of Nations, Tunisia vs. Morocco was an excellent, back and forth game which featured, well, pretty much everything. High pressure attacking mixed with silly misses, solid defending interspersed with utter calamities, and a successful slide tackle by a goalkeeper 35 yards from his own net.
Morocco Vs. Tunisia, 2012 Africa Cup Of Nations: 2-1 Tunisa After Entertaining Match
Morocco, led by the inimitable Marouane Chamakh, were on top at the beginning of the game, playing pretty football but failing to trouble Aymen Mathlouthi overmuch, either missing the goal entirely or blasting straight at him. There were warnings that they'd regret being so wasteful - Zouheir Dhaouadi rattled the post with a long range effort in the 25th minute and Nadir Lamyaghri had to do well to beat away an early shot from Karim Haggui - and they'd pay the price when a free kick by Khaled Korbi was defended awfully and went straight into the back of the net.
1-0 down at the half, Morocco responded by added Queens Park Rangers midfield Adel Taarabt to the fray. They spurned a great chance to go level when Youssouf Hadji smashed a volleyed effort just wide, but instead found themselves facing a two-goal deficit after Tunisia substitute Youssef Msakni danced through the heart of their defence and slotted home via a deflection.
With four minutes left to go, Morocco roused themselves and were able to get back into the match via a controversial goal, Ahmed Kantari feeding Houssine Kharja from a clearly offside position for the midfielder to acrobatically lash into the net, but the scramble to find a second just didn’t pay off, and the match would end 2-1.
See More:
