It’s Round of 16 time in the Fifa World Cup and the first action sees Canada clash with Morocco in Houston on Saturday
Canada
Canada take their place in the last 16 after ending Bafana Bafana’s tournament with a 1-0 in Los Angeles in the first knockout round on Sunday. The only goal of the game came in the second minute of injury time with a fine strike from Stephen Eustaquio. The best of what clear cut chances they were fell the way of the Canadians although as the scoreline suggests it was a tight match.
Earlier in the tournament Canada were runners up in Group A. Switzerland topped that quartet with 7 points, Canada finished with 4 points ahead of Bosnia & Herzegovina on goal difference and Qatar were bottom with 1 point. Finishing second in the group rather than first meant Canada will not play on home turf again during the tournament.
Canada’s only defeat came in their final group match when they went down 2-1 to Switzerland in Vancouver. The Swiss struck twice early in the second half to take control, substitute Promise David pulled a goal back for Canada but there was no further scoring.
Canada dished out a 6-0 hiding to Qatar in Vancouver in their second match. Cyle Larin opened the scoring and Jonathan David grabbed a hat trick, Nathan Saliba was also on target and Qatar also scored an own goal. Canada’s task had been made easier by Qatar being reduced to 10 men when the score was 2-0 and then 9 men when they led 3-0.
Canada had started with a 1-1 draw against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Toronto. They were 1-0 down from the 21st minute until a 78th minute equalizer from Cyle Larin who had only just been introduced off the bench.
Morocco
Morocco’s Round of 32 clash with the Netherlands in Monterrey went all the way to spot kicks and despite players on both sides failing to score in the shoot out, Morocco eventually prevailed. Regulation time had finished locked up at 1-1 with Issa Diop rescuing Morocco with a 91st minute equalizer after they had fallen behind on 72 minutes. Morocco had the better of the match and a combination of good goalkeeping and the Dutch woodwork had kept them out until the those closing moments.
Morocco came through Group C as runners up to Brazil on goal difference. Both those sides won 2 and drew 1 of their matches whilst Scotland were third with 3 points but didn’t make the cut and Haiti lost all of their games.
Morocco twice came from behind to see off already eliminated Haiti 4-2 in their final group match in Atlanta with goals from Achraf Hakimi, Ismael Saibar (who found the net in every group match), Soufiane Rahimi and finally Gessime Yassine.
Morocco had pretty much assured themselves of a place in the knockout rounds when they edged out Scotland 1-0 in Boston in their second group match where Ismael Saibari needed just 70 seconds to come up with the decisive goal.
New Jersey was the venue for Morocco’s opening match against Brazil, they came flying out of the blocks and took a first half lead through Saibari. However it was 1-1 by half time and that’s the way it finished.
The Betting (Regulation time unless stated otherwise)
Canada are priced at around 38/10 to win the game with the draw available at 43/20 and Morocco can be backed at around 8/10.
A game of 3 goals or more is priced at 11/10 and its 21/20 for both teams to score
To qualify for the next round by any method of victory Canada are 37/20 and Morocco are 7/20
The Verdict:
Morocco haven’t done much wrong and it’s fair to say they have had a tougher route to the last 16 than Canada. I’m with Morocco to score 2 or more in normal time.
Bets: Morocco total goals over 1.5 at even money with Hollywoodbets
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Note, odds are subject to change
