Hosts India conceded three goals in the second half to suffer a humiliating 0-3 defeat to Morocco in their second Group A match and crash out of the FIFA Women's Under-17 World Cup 2022 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
Debuta🦩nts Morocco scored through El Madani (50th minute), Yasmine Zouhir (61st) and Cherif🎶 Djennah (90+1) to script their maiden win in the tournament.
India, who were also making their debut as automatic qualifiers as hosts, had lost to USA 0-8 in the opening match on Tuesday. They take on Brazil in their last group match on October 17, which 💧will only be of aca💯demic interest.
Morroco still remai💯ned in contention for a quarterfinal berth with three points after title contenders Brazil and USA played out a 1-1 draw in another Group A match here earlier in the day. Brazil and USA now have four points each after two matches. Morocco, who had lost to Brazil 0-1 on Tuesday, play against USA on October 17.
It🐻 was a much improved Indian side after their humbling 0-8 defeat against USA and they dominated briefly in the early part of the first half which was largely evenly-contested. But the hosts lost the plot in the second half, conceding three goals to lose the match to the African team.
Goalkeeper Melody Keisham, who replaced Anjali Munda after the USA match, had a forgettable game as her mistake led tꦿo Morocco's second goal.
In the eight minute of the m🍌atch, India put pressure on the opposition defence. Nitu Linda collected the ball in Morocco box and she tried to set up Anita Kumari but a defender cleared the ball. Nothing came out of the Indian corner.
Four minutes later, it was Nitu again who won the ball after pressing her marker but her pass towards Anita was blocked by a Moroccan player. After that brief domination by the 🙈Indians, Morocco were on ascendency and they were unlucky not to have taken the lead with the ꧟crossbar saving India in the 18th minute.
Melody failed tꦐo collect the ball cleanly after a Hajar Said attempt. El Madani then sent a cross but two Moroccan players could not connect it but captain Zouhir was there to fire in a powerful shot but only to hit the crossbar.
Another Morocco chance came right at the half-time whistle when Melody again failed🌼 to collect the ball but India survived as both the sides were locked 0-0 at half time.
Five miꦇnutes into the sec♕ond half, Naketa handled the ball inside the Indian box and the referee had no hesitation to point to the dreaded spot and El Madani stepped up to score from the penalty.
Morocco doubled the lead after Melody fumbled while trying to collect a cross from the right and captain Yasmine Zouhir slotted the ball home with a left footer in the 61st minute. Morocco then added salt to ღIndia's injury as Cherif Djennah outran Indian markers on the left before scoring a clinical g🦹oal in the first minute of the added time.
“We fought hard but ꦫlost the match. We will try to give our best against Brazil,” said captain Astam Oraon after the match. “It was a much improved performance by the team (than the match against USA). But we m✨ade mistakes including by the goalkeeper (second goal)," head coach Thomas Dennerby said.
