Morocco
HaitiA chaotic, entertaining Group C finale that Morocco won as expected but had to work considerably harder for than the scoreline suggests. Haiti's willingness to play forward and their two moments of genuine individual quality made this a proper contest for the first hour. Morocco's turning point was Hakimi's 39th-minute equalizer and Saibari's first-half insurance goal; after that the Atlas Lions controlled the tempo and their clinical depth in the final thirty minutes finished the job emphatically. The 3.26 to 0.66 xG differential tells you which side was always going to win; the scoreline tells you it was never quite as comfortable as it should have been.
Morocco
Morocco were messy and brilliant in roughly equal measure. They conceded an own goal inside ten minutes, allowed Haiti to make it 2-1 through Wilson Isidor's astonishing thunderbolt, yet still turned the game around through Hakimi's equalizer on 39 minutes and Saibari's stroke of first-half fortune that sent them in ahead at the break. The second half was considerably calmer: Rahimi added a third on 78 minutes and Gessime Yassine sealed it in stoppage time. Morocco's xG of 3.26 against Haiti's 0.66 confirmed the Atlas Lions were the dominant force even when the scoreboard briefly suggested otherwise.
Haiti
Haiti produced their finest performance of the tournament and, for thirty minutes, looked like they might conjure the kind of upset that rings around the world. They led twice — first through Bounou's own goal, then through Isidor's electrifying strike from the edge of the penalty area — and defended with everything they had. In the end Morocco's quality and relentlessness told, but Haiti leave Atlanta having shown a glimpse of what made their qualification so special. They exit without a point but with Isidor's goal as proof that a striker worth watching has announced himself on football's biggest stage.