Morocco Retain CHAN Title After Thrashing Mali 2-0

Morocco became the first team to successfully defend the African Nations Championship (CHAN) trophy with a 2-0 win over Mali in Cameroon on Sunday.

The Moroccans were made to work hard for their win and both of their goals came from second-half corners in front of around 6,700 fans at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaounde.

Soufiane Bouftini headed home the first and that was followed up by another from Ayoub El Kaabi, who scored nine goals in 2018 to help Morocco win the title on home soil.

To make matters worse for Mali they finished the game with 10 men after the dismissal of Issaka Samake for a second yellow card, as the game went into injury time.

Initially Kenyan referee Peter Waweru had cautioned and Morocco’s Mohammed Ali Bemammer before the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) recommended he looked at the pitch-side monitor and after a lengthy review he reversed his decision and showed Samake a second yellow card.

Mali had started the match on the front foot and seemed to surprise the Moroccans as they pushed forward and disrupted their passing game.

There were some clumsy challenges from both sides in the opening 20 minutes and one of the resulting free kicks saw the first good chance of the match.

Recently reinstated Confederation or African Football president Ahmad was part of the presentation ceremony at the end of the match alongside former Cameroon players Samuel Eto’o, Patrick Mboma and Jacques Songo’o.