RESULTS:
Japan 2 Spain 1
Costa Rica 2 Germany 4
Canada 1 Morocco 2
Croatia 0 Belgium 0
FIXTURES:
Friday, Dec 2@6pm:
Ghana v Uruguay
South Korea v Portugal
Friday, Dec 2@10pm:
Cameroon v Brazil
Serbia v Switzerland
Morocco became the second African country to clinch a slot in the round-of-16 at the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar after beating Canada 2-1 on Thursday, December 1.
However, Thursday’s biggest shock was the exit of former world champions Germany and highly-rated Belgium from the tournament at the group stage.
Achraf Hakimi and Youssef En-Nesyri scored the goals for Morocco to win Group F, which had Belgium, one of the pre-tournament favourites, crash out. Belgium were held to a goalless draw by Croatia in the other Group F game.
That means Croatia finished second in the group and advance to the last-16 at the expense of Belgium.
Morocco, meanwhile, joins Senegal in the last-16 stage as one of the Africa representatives.
Cameroon and Ghana still have the chance to make it if they win their last group games on Friday (December 2) while Tunisia crashed out on Wednesday despite beating France 1-0 in their final group match.
Cameroon take on Brazil while Ghana play Uruguay in must-win games for the African nations to qualify for the last-16 knockout stage.
Meanwhile, former four-time world champions Germany also crashed out at the group stage after finishing third in Group E from which Japan and Spain advanced as winners and runner-up respectively.
In the final group games played Thursday night, Japan stunned Spain 2-1 to top the group while Germany defeated Costa Rica 4-2 but the victory did not save the Germans from another embarrassing World Cup show.
Four years ago, the Germans exited the FIFA World Cup at the group stage during the tournament held in Russia.
