Morocco delivers upon its immense promise in victorious AFCON debut

But still, there's pressure, and then there's this.

Morocco hasn't won AFCON since 1976, and not for lack of trying: For five decades, the team has come close but never quite delivered when it counted. Regragui's challenge in AFCON 2025 is to shake off 50 years of hurt and deliver Morocco the title it's yearned for ... and to do it all on home soil in front of some of soccer's most demanding fans.

"The public has been waiting for so long that they cannot stop thinking about it," Regragui said. "...Every day, in the street, wherever we are in Morocco, there isn't a single person who doesn't tell me that we absolutely must win it."

Brahim and bacord

That pressure was evident when Morocco kicked off its tournament against Comoros in Rabat: The opening 30 minutes of the match were studded with nerves. Forward Soufiane Rahimi missed a penalty kick, while defender Romain Saïss suffered a non-contact injury and left the field wincing. Cross after cross pinged into Comoros's penalty box with no end result. Morocco had well over 70% of the ball but couldn't find its way through Comoros's stubborn 10-man defense.

It took a moment of magic from Morocco's Europe-based trio to break the deadlock. Real Betis midfielder Sofyan Amrabat found Manchester United full back Noussair Mazraoui on the right side of Comoros' penalty box, and Mazraoui threaded a ball through to Real Madrid striker Brahim Diaz. The weight of Mazraoui's pass was perfect, and Diaz— Morocco's top scorer in AFCON qualifying with seven goals in four games — slammed his shot into the Comoros net. The goal showed off everything that Regragui's Morocco has developed since its World Cup antics in 2022: opportunism, timing and, above all, patience.

Morocco's second goal, though, was something else, a moment of forehead-smacking brilliance from Olympiacos' El Kaabi. He ran backwards onto a ball from defender Anass Salah-Eddine and executed a perfect bicycle kick (called a bacord in Arabic) to double Morocco's lead in style.

The World Cup and beyond

AFCON 2025 is the first step of a long journey for the Moroccan national team, one that's building toward a generational event: the 2030 World Cup.

Morocco is slated to co-host the centennial edition of the tournament alongside Spain and Portugal, and it has invested heavily in its sporting infrastructure in advance of that challenge.

“It’s phenomenal how this has developed in a short period,” Regragui said of Morocco's sporting investments. “Today, what we have means we envy no other country anywhere in the world.”

AFCON 2025 offers Morocco an opportunity to test its World Cup readiness. If it can host 24 national teams with aplomb, it will feel more than capable of running a World Cup at home; if it can beat them all on the field, it will feel more than capable of winning one, too.

AFCON's group stage will continue on Monday with Mali taking on Zambia, South Africa taking on Angola and Egypt taking on Zimbabwe.