JOHANNESBURG -- Mustapha Hadji marked his
return to the Moroccan side with a vital goal to put his country
one point away from the World Cup finals.
The English-based midfielder scored the only goal of the
African group C qualifier as Morocco beat Egypt 1-0 in Rabat on
Saturday to set themselves up for yet another World Cup finals
appearance.
Morocco now need only a draw in their final qualifier at
Senegal on July 15 to go through to next year's tournament in
Japan and South Korea.
They have a six-point lead over Egypt and Senegal, but have
just one qualifier left while the two other challengers have two
matches to play.
Hadji's 31st minute goal came from a cross by Abdeljilil
Hadda in a tense north African derby.
The Coventry City midfielder, who is set for a transfer to
Aston Villa, walked out on the eve of his country's last World
Cup qualifier against Algeria in early May because he preferred
to play for Coventry in a premier league relegation match
against Villa.
He missed two further matches for Morocco in the African
Nations Cup qualifiers this month and endured heavy criticism
for choosing club before country, but got a standing ovation on
Saturday when he left the pitch after being substituted near the
end.
Algeria routs Namibia 4-0
A makeshift Algerian side inflicted a record-equalling
heaviest home defeat on Namibia with a 4-0 thumping in Windhoek
in Saturday's other group C match.
Brahim Ouahid scored twice in only his second international
appearance while Fadel Settara and substitute Fares Al Aouni
both scored on their debuts.
Both countries are already out of the competition but it was
a disastrous start for Namibia's new coach Smithley Englebrecht,
who took over from the veteran Romanian Ted Dumitru earlier this
week.
Dumitru resigned in protest at the Namibian Football
Association's decision to reinstate a player in the squad he had
kicked out for disciplinary reasons.
Ironically, Algeria will have a new coach from Monday with
the return to the post of former African Footballer of the Year
Rabah Madjer.
Cameroon are heavily fancied to become the first side to
qualify for the World Cup finals, needing just a draw at home
against Togo on Sunday to win group A.
Their task was made easier by Angola's failure to win at
bottom-placed Libya in Tripoli on Friday.
An injury-time penalty from midfielder Zico gave Angola a
1-1 draw and delayed Cameroon's seemingly inevitable progress to
an African record fifth finals appearance by at least 48 hours.
Libya had led from the first half but now remain without a
win in the group after six matches and some dramatic personnel
changes, including firing the entire team after they lost in a
Nations Cup qualifier at home to the Ivory Coast last month.
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