Fifa Under-17 World Cup: Younes Bnou Marzouk double fires Morocco to the top

Sharjah: Younes Bnou Marzouk scored a first-half brace to guide Morocco to the top of Group C of the Fifa Under-17 World Cup with an entertaining 4-2 victory over winless Panama at the Sharjah Club ground here late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, in the other Group C game, Uzbekistan beat Croatia 2-1 in Fujairah.

Having earlier beaten Croatia 3-1 and drawn 0-0 with Uzbekistan, Morocco top the group on seven points, ahead of Uzbekistan, who had recorded a 2-0 win over Panama - by a difference of only one goal.

Croatia, who only have three points after a 1-0 win over Panama, will now have to wait to see if they qualify for the second round as one of the competition’s third best teams. Elsewhere, Panama exit the competition without a point after three straight defeats.

Winner of Group C Morocco will play the best third-placed side from Groups A, B or F in the second round, while runners-up Uzbekistan will play the runners-up from Group A.

Third-placed Croatia must wait to see if they have done enough to qualify as the best third-placed team, which will face the winner of either Group A or B.

Down by a 20th minute strike from Werner Wald, Morocco came alive thanks to Marzouk’s double on the half hour and in the 40th minute.

They added a third through Hamza Sakhi four minutes into the second half and also scored an 85th-minute strike through Karim Achahbar.

Following the initial hesitancy, it was Panama who brought things alive in the 20th minute when Wald latched on to a free-kick deflection from Christopher Bared and buried the ball deep to the right of Moroccan goalkeeper Oussayd Belkouch.

Panama were rewarded for all their hard work two minutes from full-time when Ervin Zorrilla slammed in from inside the six-yard area to make it 4-2.

In the other group game, Uzbekistan went ahead from an own goal after a quarter of an hour when Duje Caleta-Car turned Dostonbek Khamdamov’s free-kick into his own net.

Croatia got one back on the half-hour, however, through Tottenham Hotspur target Alen Halilovic, who received Petar Mamic’s midfield pass, ran into the box and rounded his markers to shoot to the left of the keeper.

But Uzbekistan went back ahead with ten minutes to spare after Otabek Shukurov’s shot hit the defence and fell into Jamshid Boltaboev, who drove the ball into the bottom corner.