Egypt’s U-23 national team have suffered a humiliating 6-0 loss to Morocco in the third-place playoff of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The game was Egypt’s first-ever chance of winning a medal in the Olympic football event and also the second to claim a medal in Paris after Mohamed El-Sayed’s bronze medal in the fencing competition.
Egypt had suffered a 3-1 defeat to hosts France in the semi-finals following a respectable performance, which gave the fans hope ahead of the Morocco clash.
The clash was a repeat of the U23 Africa Cup of Nations final, which Morocco managed to win 2-1 after extra time for both teams to qualify for the Olympics together.
However, it was a much worse story for the Pharaohs in Nantes as they suffered a humiliating 6-0 defeat to their North African rivals to settle for fourth place.
The game saw a fiery start as Achraf Hakimi had the first sight of the Egyptian goal inside the opening minute as Omar Faisal responded five minutes with a header that was easily saved by the Moroccan keeper Munir.
In addition to Omar Fayed’s absence because of suspension and Ahmed Eid’s injury, the Pharaohs suffered yet another blow as Ahmed Sayed Zizo was forced off the pitch with an injury and was replaced by Mostafa Saad.
It was all downhill from here for the Egyptians as first Abde Ezzalzouli curled a shot into the top corner to give Morocco the leader in the 23rd minute, before Soufiane Rahimi doubled the lead with a header just three minutes later.
Egypt tried to get one back before the half-time whistle; however, they returned back to the dressing 2-0 down, which forced Micale to intervene and bring on Ahmed Atef for Karim El-Debes during the break.
However, this didn’t change much, as only six minutes after the restart, Bilal El Khannous killed off the game by scoring a third goal with a shot from outside the box.
Micale then made another substitution, putting on Ziad Kamal for Mahmoud Saber hoping to reduce the deficit, but a through ball saw Rahimi go one-on-one with Hamza Alaa, before putting the ball past him for a fourth goal in the 64th minute.
Morocco didn’t take their foot off the gas and scored two further goals in the 73rd and 87th minutes through Akram Nakach and Achraf Hakimi, with the latter putting the icing on the cake with a brilliant free-kick.
The referee then put Egypt out of their misery and called it a day, to see Morocco win the bronze medal with a historic 6-0 win over the Pharaohs.
The win gives Morocco its first-ever medal in Olympics football to follow up on their historic achievement in the 2022 World Cup when they finished fourth.
As for Egypt, the wait for an Olympic football medal goes on after losing the bronze medal match for the third time after 1928 in Stockholm and 1964 in Tokyo.