Ounahi's Second-Half Double Sends Morocco Past Canada 3-0 and Into the World Cup Quarterfinals

Azzedine Ounahi scored twice in the second half to drive Morocco into the 2026 World Cup quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over co-hosts Canada on Saturday in Houston, ending the tournament's most romantic story and opening the knockout rounds with a jolt.

The scoreline flattered Morocco, which spent a chastening first half pinned back by a fearless Canada side. The co-hosts racked up 13 touches in the Moroccan box to Morocco's one at the other end, and should have led at the break. Tani Oluwaseyi squandered Canada's best chance, denied by Montreal-born goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, whose saves kept the match level when the run of play demanded otherwise.

Morocco emerged from the interval transformed. Manager and players alike had seen enough of forcing passes into Canada's aggressive press, and they let the game breathe. Five minutes into the second half, Ounahi drilled a finish from the top of the box after a cutback from right back Achraf Hakimi, and the balance of the tie tilted for good. As Canada pushed numbers forward chasing an equalizer, the spaces Ounahi had been denied in the first half suddenly opened.

He punished them. Ounahi effectively sealed the win late on, exploiting Canada's stretched defense to plant a precise second past goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau. Deep into stoppage time, Brahim Diaz teed up Soufiane Rahimi for a third, a gloss on a result that Canada's performance did not deserve but that Morocco's second-half composure earned.

The victory books Morocco a quarterfinal against the winner of France and Paraguay, and cements the African side's status as one of the tournament's genuine threats, four years after its run to the 2022 semifinals. There was a cloud, however: forward Ismael Saibari, the newly transferred Bayern Munich man, limped off injured in the first half, and his availability for the last eight is in doubt.

For Canada, the defeat closes a landmark home World Cup with pride intact. Roared on by their own crowd, Les Rouges produced the braver, more incisive football for 45 minutes and matched a Moroccan team ranked among the world's best for long stretches. It was not enough — Ounahi and Bounou saw to that — but a Canadian program that had never before threatened the latter stages of a World Cup left the tournament looking like a side that belongs. The knockout rounds, meanwhile, rolled on, with Brazil, England, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and the United States all still to play their Round of 16 ties.