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Ilias Akhomach couldn’t help but smile. His Morocco were still shy of reaching half-time in their Olympic men’s quarter-final against the USA, and he had just done something that might be deemed frivolous in the circumstances, a risky backheel pass within a chain of slick exchanges down the productive right flank that is his team’s channel of greatest menace.
It did not quite come off. But nobody chided the 20-year-old from trying the trick. After all, the rollercoaster adventure that has been Morocco’s pursuit of a first Olympic medal in the country’s favourite sport had begun with the same audacious manoeuvre, an Akhomach backheel to dislodge Argentina’s defence, setting up the cross from which the outstanding Soufiane Rahimi scored the first of his five goals in the tournament so far and the first of Morocco’s 10 in their four matches.
These sorts of high-skill flourishes have peppered Morocco's football through their journey to Monday's semi-final against Spain in Marseille, a city where the local demographic guarantees that such displays of swagger will be enthusiastically cheered.
The Moroccans have been well supported in all the French stadiums they have played in, partly thanks to the significant numbers of compatriots who live in France, and partly because they put together so many passing sequences worth applauding.
That’s a tough ask in the context of an Olympic tournament where any coach, in this case Tarik Sektioui, is obliged to compromise his ideal squad selection due to a series of refusals by clubs to release players – Olympic football does not have the same Fifa-endorsed priority as senior international competitions and the Games schedule clashes directly with pre-season in many major leagues – and balance the requirement that only three players in his party can be over the age of 23.
He then has very limited practice time with the players who are available. So to see players putting together such sophisticated passing combinations as Morocco have at these Games is unusual.
“You have to be very disciplined tactically and our players have shown a great desire and willingness to do that,” said Sektioui.
It helps that some of his squad won the African under-23 title together last year, beating Egypt, who, if they defeat Olympic hosts France later on Monday in Lyon, could make Friday’s gold medal match a repeat of that final. It helps that many of Morocco’s elite players born in the 21st century share the daring and sure touch of Akhomach, one of several in Sektioui’s squad with no fear of stage fright when it comes to taking on Spain, a country serially successful at both youth and senior level.
Akhomach, of Villarreal, was born on the outskirts of Barcelona, the club where his fellow winger Abde Ezzalzouli made his top-division debut in a career spent entirely in Spanish football. The pair of them will be taking on footballers with whom they have shared histories in Marseille. Spain goalkeeper Arnau Tenas was a colleague of both in the junior ranks at Barca and a Spain under-21 colleague of Akhomach’s in the period before Akhomach, a dual-national, opted to represent Morocco.
Fermin Lopez, of Barcelona, and Samu Omorodion, key figures in Spain’s Olympics attack, also played alongside Akhomach as Spain juniors. The links across this semi-final are many. Omorodion, like Morocco goalkeeper Munir El Kajoui, was born in Melilla, the Spanish enclave in North Africa. Tenas, now of Paris Saint-Germain, is a current clubmate of Madrid-born Achraf Hakimi, who alongside Al Ain’s Rahimi and goalkeeper Munir is one of the over-age players in Sektioui’s group, each of them well-chosen leaders of the Olympic endeavour.
Rahimi is the tournament’s leading goalscorer, Hakimi the piston of Morocco’s powerful right flank, and Munir has made some outstanding saves.
All the mutual knowledge leaves few mysteries in the planning around what each rival is capable of on Monday, and there’s also a freighted recent history of direct Spanish-Moroccan confrontations across major tournaments and indeed for the international custody of young talent.
Besides Akhomach, Abde – who moved to Spain as a child – and Hakimi were unsuccessfully courted by Spain’s Federation, as, in a vivid tug-of-war earlier this year was Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz, who chose Morocco but was withheld by his club from the Games.
Morocco in turn lost out on Lamine Yamal, the Catalonia-born son of a Moroccan father and the teenage star of Spain’s victory in the European championship last month.
Spain won silver at the last Olympics, one of a large collection of prizes at junior and senior level earned in this millennium. But there’s a special momentum to Moroccan football right now, too, what with the under-23 African title last year and the historic reaching of a senior World Cup semi-final in Qatar in 2022.
There, Hakimi struck the decisive penalty in the shoot-out that eliminated Spain in the last-16 phase. He and Munir had both been involved in a 2-2 draw against the Spaniards at the previous World Cup in which Morocco twice led and only dropped points thanks to a last-minute equaliser.
Santi Denia, the Spain head coach, is certainly not declaring his team favourites in Marseille for all their past prestige. “Morocco have just won 4-0 against the USA,” he said, and might have added that Argentina have also been beaten in an extraordinary opening game when the players left the field in confusion over a VAR ruling and returned after nearly two hours to play out the last three minutes in Saint-Etienne. That 2-1 win, coupled with the 3-0 dismantling of Iraq made Morocco winners of their group.
“This is a very good Morocco team,” added Denia. “And they are in strong shape. We need to work on some aspects to better our play.”
Spain beat Japan 3-0 to reach the last four, but lost to a determined Egypt, who went on to beat Paraguay in the last-eight, in their final group game.
All of which leaves the men’s football with, at the very least, a guaranteed medal for a Mena nation and a possible all-North Africa classic of a final at the Parc des Princes between Egypt and Morocco, a scenario that would leave the grandees of the European game, France and Spain battling it out on Thursday in the bronze Medal match in Nantes.
It would be hard to forecast against France in their semi, but Egypt have been belligerent and tireless competitors so far, if less thrilling to watch than the confident, fluent Moroccans.
