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Morocco missed the chance to guarantee their spot in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after Lassine Sinayoko’s second-half penalty earned Mali a 1-1 draw with the hosts on Friday.
The match was a tale of two spot-kicks, with Brahim Diaz giving Morocco the lead from a penalty deep in first-half injury time and Sinayoko replying on 64 minutes.
“We’ll look back at the second half and see what the problem was but we didn’t play the way we did in the first half. We didn’t impose our game and had to drop off. The penalty changed the game a bit,” Morocco midfielder Azzedine Ounahi told broadcaster beIN Sports.
“We go into the third game with the same approach, to win the game and finish top of the group.”
Credit: AFP
The draw at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat brought an end to Morocco’s world-record winning run, which had stretched to 19 matches following their 2-0 victory over Comoros in the tournament opener.
Despite remaining top of Group A with four points from two games, the hosts are yet to secure qualification for the knockout stage.
Mali sit second on two points, level with Zambia, who played out a goalless draw with Comoros earlier in Casablanca.
Morocco face Zambia next on Monday, and a win against the 2012 champions would ensure that the hosts go through as group winners.
Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi, the African player of the year, was again an unused substitute as he continues his recovery from an ankle injury suffered playing for Paris Saint-Germain at the start of November.
Kylian Mbappe, the current Real Madrid superstar and France skipper, was among the spectators in the crowd of 63,844 and appeared to be wearing a Morocco shirt with Hakimi’s number two on it.
