Canada 0-3 Morocco Player Ratings: Ounahi's Brace Inspires Morocco To Their Second Successive Quarterfinal Appearance In The World Cup Ending Canada's Campaign

The first Round of 16 fixture of the 2026 FIFA World Cup saw host nation Canada take on Mohamed Ouahbi's Morocco at the Houston Stadium. This was only the second head-to-head meeting between the two teams, with the first one being in the previous edition of the World Cup, where the Atlas Lions won by a scoreline of 2-1 in that group stage fixture.

The Canada national football team under Jesse Marsch have displayed some exciting brand of football throughout this tournament, and once again they started strongly against the 2025 AFCON winners.

Yassine Bonou had to come to the rescue in the 5th minute itself, when a shot from Jonathan David had to be blocked. In the 11th minute, he was called into action again as he made a brilliant save with his outstretched leg to prevent Tani Oluwaseyi from scoring, who made a nice little turn and created space for himself to take a venomous shot.

Recent Bayer Munich acquisition Ismael Saibari had to be taken off due to a hamstring injury in just the 22nd minute, ending his brilliant run of scoring in every game but one for Morocco in this FIFA World Cup.

Neither team could open the scoring in the first half, but a total of 6 yellow cards were dished out by Michael Oliver, who had previously shown five in two matches combined. It was the first World Cup match since 1966 where the first half of a game saw fewer shots taken (5) than the number of yellow cards shown.

In the second half, against the run of play, the Morocco national football team broke the deadlock first as the best right back in the world currently, Achraf Hakimi's cleverly taken free-kick found Azzedine Ounahi at the edge of the box, whose low curler found the right bottom corner to give the Atlas Lions the lead in the 50th minute.

The ultimate blow was dealt by Morocco in the 82nd minute, when Brahim Diaz found Ounahi with a cute cutback in the box following a counter-attack, and the Girona midfielder made no mistake in making it two for him on the day and his team.

Soufiane Rahimi had the chance to score the third for the Atlas Lions, but his header came off the woodwork, much to Maxime Crépeau's delight, who was rooted to the spot. However, he did get his reward in the final minute of injury time, when he finished calmly from a counter-attack to end the game as a competition.

Jesse Marsch's side failed to make the most of their chances despite showing a lot of promise, and had to bow out of the competition as a result. On the other hand, Morocco qualified for the quarterfinals for the second time in their World Cup history, and will take on the winner of France and Paraguay in the next round.

Sportsdunia brings you the Canada vs Morocco Player Ratings below, where you can find out how each player performed in this crucial Round of 16 match.

Canada National Football Team Player Ratings vs Morocco

See the Canada national football team player ratings from the Canada vs Morocco Player Ratings.

Morocco National Football Team Player Ratings vs Canada

Check out the Morocco national football team player ratings from the Canada vs Morocco Player Ratings.

Man of the Match

Azzedine Ounahi was the man of the match in this FIFA World Cup Round of 16 game.

Worst Performer

Moïse Bombito was the worst performer from Canada vs Morocco.