Morocco Trash Egypt 6-0 In An all-African Affair To Win A Historic Bronze Medal At The Ongoing Olympics Men's Football In Paris 2024.

Morocco will be on the Olympics podium for the first time ever in men's football. 

They will take home the bronze medal after beating Egypt 6-0 in an all-African affair on Thursday at Nantes' La Beaujoire Stadium.

Morocco, who lost 2-1 to Spain in the semi-finals, bounced back with the biggest win of the tournament so far to reach an Olympic podium for the first time. The bronze is also the country’s first medal in a team sport.

A lively opening saw both sides create opportunities before The Atlas Lions stunned Egypt with two goals in three minutes mid-way through the first half.

Abde Ezzalzouli opened the scoring in the 23rd minute and Soufiane Rahimi put Morocco in control 2-0 in the 26th minute before the break. 

Bilal El Khannouss put the game beyond doubt in the 51st minute of the second half, before Rahimi then netted his second in the 64th minute.

The red-hot Al-Ain forward took his tally to eight goals in Paris, most in the tournament and in doing so became the first player to net in six matches in a row at the Games.

At 28, he is one of the overage players allowed on the under-23 Olympic squads.

Rohimi further turned provider with a cut back for Akram Nakach to stab home in the 73rd minute.

It was pure misery for The Pharaohs and it was compounded three minutes from time when Achraf Hakimi saved the best until last with a sensational 30-yard free kick in the 87th minute to round off the rout.

The result sees Tarik Sektioui’s side cap their best run at an Olympics with a podium finish while Egypt goes home empty-handed after making it to the third-place play-off for the third time in Games history. 

It was Egypt's third fourth-place finish at the Olympics after Amsterdam in 1928 and Tokyo in 1964.

"All credit to Morocco. They were incredible in front of goal. They had a very high percentage in terms of their finishing. For us, it wasn't to be today," said Egypt coach Rogerio Micale, who coached Brazil to the gold medal on home soil at the 2016 Games.

Morocco has been inspired throughout the tournament by its senior men's team, which were a surprise semifinalist at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The team also crushed the United States 4-0 at Parc des Princes in Paris in the quarter-finals but then lost to Spain 2-1 in the semifinals. Spain will play host country France in the final on Friday for the gold medal.

"We wanted to win the gold medal, that's for sure, but to win a game like this, to get our country's first-ever medal here and in front of so many of our fans, it feels incredible," said forward Ilias Akhomach.

The podium finish was key for Morocco to confirm their rise in football, coach Sektioui said, after the country reached the 2022 World Cup semi-finals and finished fourth after knocking out heavyweights Spain and Portugal in the knockout rounds.

“We had to earn our victory, it wasn’t easy. It’s important to get failures first and learn from mistakes and we were able to come back stronger,” Morocco manager Tarik Sektioui told reporters.

“It was not easy, we had very tough matches. Players were aware of their responsibility and played with a lot of pride.”

“We are proud of winning this medal, we worked very hard and sacrificed a lot,” Hakimi said. 

“We wanted the gold, unfortunately we didn’t make it to the final but we showed character and we were able to win an historic medal for Morocco.

“As captain, I would like to thank our fans that were here and in Morocco.

“It shows Moroccan football is in a good path and we are making good progress. We had to succeed after the World Cup we had,” he said.

Hakimi, 25, added that it was not only Morocco that was growing in world football, but the whole continent.

“We had opened a lot of doors not only in our country but for African football,” Hakimi said. “Today there were two African countries fighting for a third and fourth place. Everyone saw the quality we have.”