AFCON 2023: Congo Vs. Morocco game preview

By Ngome Michael

Group F heavyweights, Morocco and DR Congo square-off in the penultimate group game at Stade Laurent Pokou on Sunday afternoon with a knockout stage ticket lurking for competition’s favorites Morocco who, must expect a fight from DR Congo in a group housing Zambia and Tanzania.

FIFA World Cup fourth place finish sees Morocco pride itself as the best team on the continent and ranked 13th globally. The Atlast Lions are into Matchday-2 with expectations mounting about their chances of glory.

Morocco have won the competition only once in their history, in 1976, and made the final on one other occasion in 2004, they currently boast arguably the best squad ever assembled in the country’s history.

Easing through Tanzania in 3-0 win revealed how offensive the team is unleashing 14 shots at goal with seven on target against the Taifa Stars and restricting them to just two equally shows how sound Redragui’s team can be at the back.

DR Congo and Morocco are well acquainted with each other at the African Cup of Nations as it will their sixth AFCON meeting, with all previous five still in the group stage. Only Nigeria Vs Egypt has happened more at this level in the tournament.

A win exist on either side with other three games ending in draws. The most recent meet between this dates back to 2022 World Cup qualifiers ending 1-1 in the first leg before Morocco made it 4-1 in the reversed fixture.

DRC made a rather underwhelming start against Zambia considering they were picked favorite to qualify behind Morocco. 1point from a game which had 25 attempts on the Zambian goal doesn’t speak well, but shows The Leopards are capable of pushing Morocco to a tight corner.

Congo presents a more successful AFCON history having won twice before, are into this game as the more successful side in the competition, but things have changed drastically in recent years, and they will need to be at their best to stand a chance against the mighty Moroccans.

Morocco form (all competitions):
W D W W W W.

DR Congo form (allcompetitions):
D W L D L D.

Walid Redragui’s backline looked perfect despite being without Bayern Munich Noussair Mazraoui who did not feature in midweek due to an injury. In his place, Romain Saiss made decent performance and backing the opener against Tanzania.

World Cup star, Youssef En-Nesyri opened his account with the last goal of the match and will sure lead upfront on Sunday. Azzedine Ounahi, Man of the Match in the first game is another ingredient in the Moroccan pack.

For Congo DR, Brentford attacker Yoane Wissa  scored the only goal for his side against Zambia, and he will spearhead the attack once again alongside Galatasaray forward Cedric Bakambu, hopping to be more clinical.