Achraf Hakimi did not hesitate to attack the attitude of Moroccan supporters, he was heard. For their team’s third and final match in the group stage of the 2025 African Cup of Nations against Zambia, the approximately 50,000 spectators at the Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium always pushed behind their heroes of the evening. The spectacle was total in Rabat.
Excited, the Atlas Lions lived up to the expectations of their public. From the start of the match, the intensity is raised to the level of the stakes of the match. And what can we say about the power of the clamor that descended from the stands when new darling Ayoub El Kaabi opened the scoring with a superb diving header (9th).
The acrobat El Kaabi, Hakimi returns
The plan is respected for Walid Regragui’s men. Shortly before the half hour mark, the Moroccans developed an action to show in all football schools on the left to allow Brahim Diaz to score in a third match in a row (27th). A performance no longer achieved since the 1972 CAN and the performance of Ahmed Faras, top scorer in the history of the selection (36) and who died this summer. Quite a symbol, as if the Real Madrid striker had chosen to take over.
But Brahim Diaz has competition for the status of best player of CAN 2025. Alongside him on the attacking front, one name stands out: that of Ayoub El Kaabi. Already the author of a superb return during the first match against the Comoros, the Olympiakos player has clearly decided to leave his mark on the competition. On a free kick played with two players, Azzedine Ounahi, already decisive passer on the first goal, sends an excellent ball to the penalty point. Time stops when the Moroccan center forward rises to take the ball with a fantastic acrobatic gesture and score the 3-0 goal (51st).
Hallucinated, the spectators do not even have time to sit down again, when another event comes to make them shudder. At the hour mark, Achraf Hakimi takes off his bib. Almost two months after his serious ankle injury suffered in the Champions League with PSG, the right back makes his return, armband around his arm, to thunderous applause. “Even if I don’t play, I want to win the CAN on January 18,” he assured at a press conference. An unshakeable motivation which could even have led him to score in his first minutes, if the Zambian goalkeeper had not deployed superbly on his volley at the end of the match.
First in its group, Morocco is qualified for the round of 16 where it will face one of the best third-placed teams from groups C, D or E, on Sunday January 4 at 5 p.m. The party is in full swing in Rabat, but it has only just begun.
