Women’s World Cup: Morocco hold on to shock win over South Korea

Morocco shocked South Korea to claim their first-ever victory at the Women’s World Cup.

Ibtissam Jraidi’s early goal was enough for 72nd-ranked Morocco to beat their 17th-ranked opponents.

South Korea have now lost both matches and will be knocked if Colombia fail to beat Germany later today.

Morocco move level on points with their Group H rivals ahead of their clash and have kept their hopes alive of securing a surprise place in the last 16.

It was a huge improvement from the Morocco side that lost 6-0 to Germany six days ago, and Jraidi’s sixth-minute diving header gave them their first goal at the tournament.

They managed to limit South Korea’s chances too. Their best chance came from a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area but Ji So-yun failed to clear the wall.

Sixteen-year-old Casey Phair fired wide late on as South Korea failed to register a shot on target for the entire match.

“There’s a sense of pride for us to pull this first World Cup win out of the bag,” Morocco coach Reynald Pedros said.

“We didn’t change our philosophy. The Korean team is not like the German team and we got off to a blinding start.

“We were efficient in the box, that was missing against Germany.”

Cover Photo: The flag of Morocco” by Kristian Thøgersen is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .