Mighty Atlas Lions thrash rivals, scoring 16 goals from 80 shots?!

The fairy tale of Moroccan football continues! In the last few years, the Atlas Lions have recorded such terrific results that this North African country is living its sports dream.

It all started when Walid Regragui's men - the senior squad - reached the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finals, becoming the first national team from the Mother Continent to achieve such an accomplishment. Even though they lost in the semis and third-place play-off to France and Croatia, respectively, they still had an outstanding tournament.

U20 World Champions - how did it happen?

Two years later, at the 2024 Olympic Games, the Moroccan football team won a bronze medal, finishing the tournament behind Spain and France only. The series of successes continued last month when the Atlas Lions U-20 team won their maiden World Cup title, beating Spain, Brazil, France, and Argentina (among others) on their way towards glory.

And now, the U-17 World Cup is underway, and no, Morocco haven't won the title yet, as the group stage has just ended, but they managed to make another remarkable result. Yesterday, the young Atlas Lions thrashed New Caledonia 16-0, recording the most convincing victory in the 40-year history of the tournament!

Now, some of you will say that the popular Kagus are far from serious rivals, football minnows, to be fair, but just note that they lost to Portugal "only" 6-1 and salvaged a goalless draw against Japan in their previous clashes in Group B.

And yes, they indeed were playing with two men down since the 31st minute, but even so, finding the net 16 times is extremely difficult. Before the two dismissals, it was "just" 3-0. At the break, Morocco were 7-0 up, and the second half brought nine more goals in New Caledonia's net.

As odd as it may sound, the Oceanian team's defeat could have been even more disastrous, as the Atlas Lions had as many as 80 shots, 29 of which were on target?!

As for the scorers, it's hard to name all of them. As many as six Moroccan bagged braces (Abdelali Eddaoudi, Oualid Ibn Salah, Ziyad Baha, Nahel Haddani, Abdellah Ouazane, and Ismail El Aoud), Bilal Soukrat, Ilyas Hidaoui, and Zakari El Khalfioui each netted once, while New Caledonia's Steevy Andrew scored an own goal.

Despite the tremendous win, the Atlas Lions ultimately finished third in their group and can only hope to be among the eight best-ranked third-placed teams, securing their spot in the Round of 32.

Still, even if they fail to advance, they have already made their mark in the history books.