W/Cup: Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia Going Home

 

Ronaldo celebrating his winning goal for Against Morocco

Morocco, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are out of the ongoing World Cup tournament in Rusisia after they lost their second group matches played on Wednesday. Cristiano Ronaldo’s fourth minute goal for Portugal in their group B sealed Morocco’s hopes, while Luis Suarez’s 23rd minutes goal for Uruguay in their group A, his 100th cap for the home team,  sent Saudi Arabia homeward.  Morocco, which was beaten by Iran in their opening match, and Saudi Arabia, which was trounced 5-0 in their opening game, can only get three points, if either wins the last game at hand, an impossibility for Morocco, who faces Spain in their last game. Portugal will look to finish top of the group by beating Iran in Saransk on 25 June while Morocco face Spain in Kaliningrad at the same time. Egypt lost its second game, 3-1 to host country Russia in an enthralling encounter yesterday.

Morocco’s defeat means African sides have lost five of their six games at this tournament, with Senegal 2-0 piping of Poland in their group match on Tuesday, as the continent’s only success so far. Nigeria, the other African country yet to win any mach, has a make or mar match with Iceland on Friday. Iceland drew 1-1 with Argentina in their opening match.

With his lone goal winner against Morocco, having got a hat trick against Spain in their opening group match, Ronaldo became Europe’s all-time leading international scorer with 85, leavinbg Hungarian great Ferenc Puskas as Europe’s record top scorer with 84 goals.

Ronaldo at the moment, is now only behind Ali Daei of Iran, on 109 goals, in the global all-time scoring charts.