Costa Rica and Morocco deliver stunning World Cup wins

Romain Saiss (Twitter)

The surprise results of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are continuing. On Sunday, Costa Rica rebounded from a 7-0 clobbering at the hands of Spain last week to beat Japan 1-0. Also, no. 2 ranked Belgium, which looked sub-ordinary in a 1-0 win over Canada on Wednesday, ended up losing 2-0 to Morocco. All of a sudden, Morocco finds themselves leading Group F.

The Costa Rica goal on Sunday came from Herediano right back Keysher Fuller, who happens to play his professional football in his native country of Costa Rica. Fuller stunned a Japanese squad that had beaten Germany 2-1 to open the 2022 World Cup. The goal by Fuller was on Costa Rica’s first shot on target in almost two complete games. After getting shutout by Spain and getting completely outclassed, Costa Rica regrouped very effectively on Sunday, as they scored the lone goal in the contest in the 81st minute.

Morocco’s goals came from Roman Saiss in the 73rd minute and Zakaria Aboukhlal in the second minute of extra time in the second half. Saiss plays for Besiktas in the Turkish league, while Aboukhlal plays for Toulouse in France’s Ligue 1. It is interesting that neither Saiss or Aboukhlal were born in Morocco. Saiss is a native of France, while Aboukhlal is a native of the Netherlands.

In other action, Croatia clobbered Canada 4-1, and Germany and Spain played to a 1-1 deadlock. Croatia was actually trailing 1-0 to Canada before scoring four unanswered goals. Andrej Kramaric scored twice, while Marko Livaja and Lovro Majer each scored once. In Group E action, Germany got a game-tying goal from Niclas Fullkrug in the 83rd minute to tie the game at one after Alvaro Morata opened the scoring for Spain in the 62nd minute.

In Group E, Spain is the division leaders as they have a record of one win and one draw for four points. Japan and Costa Rica both have one win and one loss for three points, while Germany is in last with only a single point.

In Group F, Croatia and Morocco each have four points now (one win and one draw). Belgium is at one win and one loss, while Canada is eliminated with two losses.