Morocco head to the World Cup on the crest of a wave after another win

Morocco head to the World Cup on the crest of a wave after another win
Younes Belhanda celebrates with teammates after scoring Morocco's first goals against Estonia. (Reuters)
Updated 10 June 2018
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Morocco head to the World Cup on the crest of a wave after another win

Morocco head to the World Cup on the crest of a wave after another win
  • Morocco beat Estonia 3-1
  • It's now 18 matches unbeaten for Herve Renard’s side

Morocco will head to Russia as one of the tournament’s form horses after they extended their long unbeaten run with a win against Estonia.
Goals from Younes Belhanda, Hakim Ziyech and Youssef En-Nesyri secured a routine win for Herve Renard’s side and means they have now not tasted defeat since one against Cameroon last year, a run of 18 matches. It is a run of form that will give them huge confidence heading into their World Cup Group B opener against Iran on Friday, before tougher games against Portugal and Spain.
While nobody in the Morocco camp will be getting carried away with a win over a side ranked 94 in the world, Estonia still needed to be beaten and Morocco did it with minimal fuss.
Belhanda scored after 11 minutes and then Dutch-born Ziyech added a penalty seven minutes before the break.
Substitute Youssef En-Nesyri added a third with 15 minutes to go but Estonia pulled one back through Ats Purje.
Morocco beat Slovakia on Monday and drew with Ukraine last week in their other two warm-up games.

Morocco’s World Cup squad:
Goalkeepers: Mounir El-Kajoui (Numancia/ESP), Yassine Bounou (Girona/ESP), Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti (Ittihad Tanger)
Defenders: Medhi Benatia (Juventus/ITA), Romain Saiss (Wolves/ENG), Manuel Da Costa (Istanbul Basaksehir/TUR), Nabil Dirar (Fenerbahce/TUR), Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid/ESP), Hamza Mendyl (Lille/FRA)
Midfielders: M’barek Boussoufa (Al-Jazira/UAE), Karim El-Ahmadi (Feyenoord/NED), Youssef Ait Bennasser (Caen/FRA), Sofyan Amrabat (Feyenoord/NED), Younes Belhanda (Galatasaray/TUR), Faycal Fajr (Getafe/ESP), Amine Harit (Schalke/GER)
Forwards: Khalid Boutaib (Yeni Malatyaspor/TUR), Aziz Bouhaddouz (St. Pauli/GER), Ayoub El-Kaabi (RS Berkane), Mehdi Carcela (Standard Liege/BEL), Hakim Ziyech (Ajax/NED), Nordin Amrabat (Leganes/ESP), Youssef En-Nesyri (Malaga, ESP).