The 2026 FIFA World Cup has reached its business end, with the Round of 16 beginning. With so much happening every day, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one magical moment that defined the day's action.
For Day 23, we pick Azzedine Ounahi's superb opener for Morocco against Canada.
*****
It was the 50th minute of the opening Round of 16 tie between Morocco and Canada. As their skipper Achraf Hakimi set himself up to take a free-kick out on the right wing, Morocco were in serious need of some lift. The score might still have been 0-0, but Morocco -- comfortable favourites coming into the match -- been taken aback by the intensity of Canada's play in the opening half.
The physicality had been unsettling, and Morocco hadn't been able to set a tempo, get into any kind of rhythm. Their midfield trio of Ayyoub Bouaddi, Neil El Aynaoui and Azzedine Ounahi - all silky touches and quick passing triangles - had been bullied and hassled and harried for most of the game. Morocco had been suffocated. With open play chance creation thus proving a problem, this set-piece then seemed to be Morocco's best chance to get a foothold into the match: Pump it in, let the big centre-backs cause some chaos. Meanwhile, Ounahi mulled about on the edge of the box, and the defenders were nonplused. Why would you bother about a man with 32 career goals in 271 matches, after all.
Naturally, then, Canada packed their own box: all 11 of their players were in it as Hakimi strode up to the dead ball... and calmly passed it to the D, in front of the referee, a spot which had been occupied just a moment before by nothing but air and grass. Rushing onto it as the ball zipped in, though, was Ounahi and without breaking stride he curled a low fizzer right into the bottom corner.
He'd been standing innocuously behind the referee while the set-piece was being, well, set up, before curving a run from behind Michael Oliver just as Hakimi took his first steps towards the dead ball to take Canada completely by surprise and leave him with acres of space to take the shot in. It was a perfectly worked out training ground routine and as he wheeled away in celebration he wagged a finger at his coach Mohamed Ouahbi, who was wagging one right back at him, broad smiles on their faces... 'hah, we got that spot on there, superb!'
In a way that wag of the finger wasn't just for the set-piece routine -- as brilliant as it was from conception to execution -- for it was for Ouahbi breathing new life into Ounahi's Morocco career.
Under Walid Regragui, their divisive (amongst fans, at least) and ultra successful ex-manager, Morocco had been a defend-first, let's-grind-through-big-matches outfit. In that set up, Ounahi played as a deep lying central midfielder, trying to dictate play from back there, and had been very good at it. So good that after Spain were stunned by Morocco in the 2022 World Cup, Luis Enrique had famously said: "Madre mia! Where did this kid come from? He can really play."
Then just 22, a lot of clubs in Europe realised he could really play and eventually Marseille got him from Angers (who were relegated that season). He didn't make much of an impact there, though, injury and form and not-fitting-in all coming into play and he we went out on loan to Panathinaikos before moving to La Liga outfit Girona ahead of the 2025/26 season. It was there that he was first deployed in a more advanced role, and he finally looked like getting back to being the player he promised to be during that 2022 World Cup. For Morocco, though, he continued being played in the deeper role. Until that is, Regragui was replaced by Ouahbi.
You see, at this World Cup, Morocco have been different. Ouahbi puts out ball-players in midfield instead of destroyers (who do come on when needed, of course). Morocco don't grind out results anymore, they take control of matches, playing front-foot, flamboyant football capable of scaring anyone (just ask Brazil). And at the heart of all it is Ounahi. Where Regragui used the novice 22-year-old for solidity, Ounahi leans on the now mature 26-year-old to be the creative fulcrum. Deployed now as a #10, his stamina and relentless running are still very much in evidence (especially when Morocco have to defend hard) but it's his touch and vision that have come to the fore. And now, his eye for goal.
That opener was all about this Ounahi-Ouahbi relationship. It was one of those moments where the idea a coach has of what a player can be and the reality of who the player is fuses together to make a tangible impact on the pitch.
Ounahi would grab another on a late counter as Morocco eventually ended up smashing the co-hosts 3-0, but it was that first goal that had unlocked it all, a piece of magic from Ounahi that had allowed Morocco to breathe, and believe, again.